IN | TRANSITION 
JAMES S.GALE 


FORWARD MISSION STUDY COURSES 


EDITED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF 
THE YOUNG PEOPLE’S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT 
OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 


KOREA IN TRANSITION 


N. B—Special helps and denominational mission 
study literature for this course can be obtained by 
corresponding with the Secretary of your mission board 
or society. 


Korea in Transition 


By 
JAMES S. GALE 


Seventeen Years a Missionary in Korea 


NASHVILLE, TENN. DALLAS, TEXAS 
PUBLISHING HOUSE OF THE 
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH 
SMITH & LAMAR, AGENTS 


TO THE 
YOUNG HEARTS OF AMERICA 
IN BEHALF OF 
THE OLD WORLD OF THE EAST 


.B; WES: 


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Bat ao aa a Mey 
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ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 
DUSTER a ha Sara 9 
SMMC RIENEICS fro. Cnet fer ee toe Pewee ow 9 
Beating Turnip Seed into Meal.................. 19 
Reldmmpya eoOuser See ee cs hee eek eee eek 19 
Prine ee yee ee Soe ee Ia SI 37 


i 
Marquis Ito, First Resident Generalin Korea.... 37 
Moving Dead Body Three Years after Burial by 


Miler Ol GCOMIMANCEES. «26. eis eo wets cn's so - 69 
AGU RES PEED VG gS a ai ee ae Sela a a 69 
PURE HEREEY Os ante lo Sie Siaticm ie wee eas Cem cele oes 7 
Masked Heroes at a Funeral to Chase Away Evil 

SEIS. ¢ CERES RR AES SARS er eran eg 7I 
Royal Tomb and Guardians. .......5...62.--..: 87 
SW: Gs SRE SB A a ee 87 
Groom Returning with His Bride............... T04 
Bridal Feast after the Ceremony................ 104 
Group of Presbyterian Missionaries Itinerating... 131 
nie UR RETR aT Per ho ee Se Se cele s cae ae ess 131 
Beginning of a School for Girls............-..--: I43 
eceamebeacher with Pupils. .: 22.2. ..5.. 5s. Jo MEAS 
Junkin Memorial Hospital, Fusan.............-- 177 
Kueyertesminil SOnedO. 2. sce se deeccecdaee 177 
pevetante Hospital, Seoul...) ..5.00lsnes.- se oe 18x 
LS ry ST Grr a ee 193 
DELETES Sind Sa ae ee ee ee 193 
Chere bole by Koreans...) os. coe oalewe ss I95 
Methodist Church, Wonsan.............2-.----- 195 
Bible Training Institute, Ping yang.............- 209 
Presbyterian Church, Ping yang................. 209 


1x 


x ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

Members of Bible Class, Four Walked roo Miles 
Crowe A 7s) 000 PIA MMMMEI AA mira yes oc -. - tteeeeeevees 213 

Upper Class, Ping yang Theological School, Ping 
WANG. .)0 10s eidise vle'e's\s)s (oie uo ole)e\ etapa een lela pioiaiaiers T2I9 
Methodist Church, Seoul winielah aid a sibel wees veeee 229 

Christian Men Gathered for Two Weeks’ Bible 
SU (6 Sieie)s c\bia ten olatsielnlarntate)etatetena oseccccceeses 23E 
Methodist Congregation, Soaks o's sep wihieieraial ae sta 233 
Women’s Bible Institute ...... «ole 4/a(ehalshaalale ahem: 243 


Missionaries and Native Workers...............- 239 
Young Men’s Christian Association Building, Seoul 239 
A Group of Korean Leaders .......seeeeeeeseees 247 
Colored Map of Korea.... ...ccceccsscctecees «nd 


EDITORIAL STATEMENT 


‘According to the rules of the Young Peo- 
ple’s Missionary Movement, the Editorial Com- 
mittee has liberty to make any alterations that 
it may consider necessary in the manuscripts 
submitted to it for publication. In making 
such changes it is customary to consult with 
the author. The absence of Dr. Gale in Korea 
has made it impossible to secure from his pen 
a few additions that were found desirable. 
These have been made exclusively in Chapters 
VII and VIII, and have been taken mainly 
from the reports of other missionaries. These 
are indicated by quotation marks. There have 
also been some rearrangement of material and 
a few elisions. The Committee regrets ear- 
nestly that it has been impossible to submit all 
these changes to Dr. Gale for his approval. 


_ MAP OF 


KOREA 


From Latest Official Sources. 
o 4 40 r 1 
SCALE OF MILES 
Copyright 1909, by 
Young Peoples Missionary Movement 
of the United States and Canada. 


Whareu 1. 
. 


C. 8. HAMMOND & CO., N. Y. 
\ 126 


THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 


As one first approaches Korea, especially if one has come 
from the fertile and verdant terraced hills of Japan, the 
bleakness and barrenness of Korea’s mountains is oppressive. 
Tradition has it that the Korean, in his desire to maintain 
his independence, deemed that he could do it best by a de- 
termined exclusion of all outsiders, and, with the intention 
of making Korea page desolate and unattractive, he pur- 
posely devastated the whole coast. Whether there is truth 
in this or not, it remains a fact that the seaward coast of 
almost all its islands, even where they have a southern 
exposure, is barren, rugged, and desolate, while ofttimes 
the northern but landward side is well cultivated, woody, 
and fertile, and that, while the whole coast-line appears 
so bleak and bare, when one travels in the interior, one is 
charmed with the many fertile hills and valleys, teeming 
with grain and yielding such crops that, while not all of 
the arable land is cultivated, there is ample for Korea’s 
millions, leaving a large balance in all good years for export. 


—Horace G. Underwood 


Her resources are undeveloped, not exhausted. Her ca- 
pacities for successful agriculture are scarcely exploited.. Her 
climate is superb, her rainfall abundant, and her soil pro- 
ductive. Her hills and valleys contain coal, iron, copper, 
lead, and gold. The fisheries along her coast-line of 1,740 
miles might be a source of untold wealth. She is inhabited 
by a hardy and hospitable race, and she has no beggar class. 


—Isabella Bird Bishop 


The climate of Korea may be briefly described as the 
same as that of the eastern part of the United States between 
Maine and South Carolina, with this one difference, that 
the prevailing southeast summer wind in Korea brings the 
moisture from the warm ocean current that strikes Japan 
from the south, and precipitates it over almost the whole 
of Korea; so that there is a distinct “‘raimy season’”’ during 
most of the months of July and August. This rainy season 
also has played an important part in determining Korean 


history. 
—Homer B. Hulbert 


I 
THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 


Korea lies in the same latitude as Boston, 
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and 
Washington, 35 to 43 degrees north latitude. 
Its location is on the eastern rim of Asia, look- 
ing southward. At its back is Manchuria, the 
barbarian land; on its right, China the su- 
preme; on its left, Japan, once the island 
savage; round about it, many waters; to the 
east, the Sea of Japan where Russia’s fleets 
still lie submerged; to the west, the Yellow 
Sea, touching Port Arthur, Dalni, Wei-hai- 
wei, Chemulpo, and Tsing-tao; to the south, 
the China Sea with its typhoons and water 
“dragons.””? 

A journey straight south from Korea would 
carry you past the east side of the Philippines, 
between New Guinea and the Celebes, and 
through west central Australia. North, would 
take you over Siberia through the mouth of 
the Lena into the Arctic Ocean. Going due 
TRS HAE pote have been ‘‘sea-dragons”’ to the Koreans 


since time immemorial. 
3 


Location 


Relation to 
Other Countries 


The Name 
Korea 


Size 


4 KorREA IN TRANSITION 


west, you would see Peking, Kabul, Teheran, 
Constantinople, Rome, New York, and San 
Francisco. An elevator shaft sunk right 
through the Northern Hemisphere, would 
come out in the Atlantic Ocean, distant one 
hour of sun time from New York. 

Korea is a foreign name, learned a hundred 
years ago from China, and belonging to a 
defunct dynasty that fell in 1391 A. D. Like 
the star that came into collision and was 
knocked out of being five hundred years ago, 
whose light still shines, so we still say “Korea.” 
The average native, however, asks: “ ‘Korea?’ 
What is that? Whom do you refer toe’ 
Korea has had many names. When mission- 
ary work first began, it was called “Chosun” ; 
now after unimagined changes it is Han Guk 
or Han, “The Church of Han’, “the men of 
Han”, “the golden opportunity in the land 
of Han”, and similar expressions. /y, 7 

Roughly speaking Korea is 600 miles from 
north to south, and #35-miles from _east to 
west, with an area of about 8esee0 square 
miles. It is about half the size of Japan, one 
third that of the Province of Ontario, twice 
that of the state of Kentucky, and about equal 
in extent to Kansas. 


THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 5 


Korea is divided into thirteen provinces. 
Thirteen is an unlucky number, and since this 
division was made some ten years ago noth- 
ing but a succession of misfortunes has fol- 
lowed. Still, thirteen is associated with our 
Lord and his disciples, and while for a time 
it may seem to spell defeat and disaster, in the 
last great innings thirteen will rise triumphant, 
and Korea, we trust, will be joined to this 
number forever and forever. 

Last year the Financial Adviser’s Office is- 
sued a note concerning the population, number 
of houses, and like items, based on police re- 
ports and inspection. According to these 
returns the province of Kyung kui has a popu- 
lation of 869,000, a half of whom are in and 
about the city of Seoul. The most densely 
peopled district is south Kyung sang, with a 
population of 1,270,214, almost equal to that 
of Maryland. The total of these returns, how- 
ever, shows a population under ten millions. 
The Japan Year Book for 1907 considers this 
figure too small, and suggests 14,000,000 as 
nearer the mark. 

Religion ought to insure correctness in a 
person’s mathematics, but it will take a genera- 
tion or two to trim off the East and bring it 


Divisions 


Population 


Native Use of 
Large Numbers 


Mountains 


6 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


to anything like exactitude in dealing with 
figures. Chun-man or its equivalent is one 
of the common words, “ten thousand times a 
thousand”. When eight hundred people meet 
together, thousands are gathered; and fiiteen 
means several score. My old friend Kim 
prays, “God bless our twenty millions of a 
family.” 

“But, Brother Kim, we are not sure that 
there are twenty millions. Fifteen would seem 
to be a wide estimate, the census returns show 
even less.” 

“Census returns!” echoes Kim, “Dear me, 
as if we did not know our own family! J 
chun man tong po (20,000,000, brothers and 
sisters). Everybody says so.” 

Korea has a backbone of mountains, that 
runs irregularly all down the map. From the 
Tumen, over against Vladivostok, it drops 
southwest to Wonsan, then southeast to the - 
Kyung sang border, and from there south 
along the east border of Chung chong and 
Chulla. These ridges are not snowcapped nor 
tall, an elevation of 2,500 feet being a king 
among them. From the parent range, hills 
have sprung up everywhere. “San way yu san, 
san pul chin” (“Over the mountams, moun- 


THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE Vi 


tains still, mountains without number”). These 
hills have talked to the people for hundreds 
of years, not with so much music as those of 
Switzerland, nor awakening so patriotic a re- 
sponse, but they have talked with many per- 
suasive voices. Like David, the Korean too, 
at times, sees his hills skip and dance, and 
again they weep with him in sackcloth and 
ashes. So much is said of mountains in Korea 
that I mention them particularly. They live; 
in old days their spirits walked about and had 
their being. They were guardians of the liv- 
ing and watchers over the dead. 

There are ten rivers in Korea, but, with 
the exception of the Tumen, none on the east 
coast. The hills there come up so close to the 
seashore that only rivulets are possible. The 
four noted rivers are the Nak Tong, in the 
south; the Han, in the center; the Ta Tong, 
past Ping yang; and the Yalu, in the north. 

The soils of Korea are varied, from stiff 
clay to black loam; but the characteristic soil is 
rotten granite, a white, gritty, porous, barren- 
looking earth, in which nothing would seem 
to grow. If you dig it, and inhale the ex- 
halations, you will develop ague till your 
teeth chatter, your bed rattles, and your whole 


4 


Rivers 


Soil 


Grains 


Fruits 


8 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


being vibrates. If you walk on it, it will grind 
down the soles of your walking shoes in a very 
short time. Seven hundred miles, with rotten 
granite here and there, once completely used 
up two pairs of shoes. This soil is like the soul 
of the Oriental, it gives little promise of any 
seed taking root, but once get the roots 
fastened, then everything grows and flourishes 
luxuriantly. 

No grain in the Western world stands out 
preeminently over all others as does rice. 
Wheat and corn have to do with huge monop- 
olies, and are kings in finance, but rice is the 
imperial majesty of the cereal world. It is 
the prettiest grain grown. More people eat 
rice and flourish on it than on any other grain. 
Korea is a land of rice. There are beans, and 
lentils, and barley, and millet, and sesamum, 
and what not, but these are unseen and unmen- 
tioned in the glory of rice. In years when 
rains are favorable, waving paddy-fields speak 
the praises of the land all the way from Fusan 
to the Yalu and the Tumen. 

Fruits grow well in Korea, coarse pears, 
hard peaches, wild apples, tasteless dates. But 
every fruit failure is atoned for in the glorious 
autumn of persimmons. ‘Korean persimmons 


PLOWING 


Copyright, Underwood & Underwood 


SAWING TIMBER 


THe LAND AND THE PEOPLE 9 


are the finest fruit in the world,” would be 
the verdict of many who have had the widest 
experience and the longest time to judge. 
Where every man, woman, and child 
smokes, shall we not mention tobacco? It 
too is a mighty king, although it was not 
known till 1645, being brought in at that time 
by Prince Chang-yu, who went as ambassador 
to the first Manchu emperor. I quote from an 
Eastern writer, Esson Third: “I once heard 
the Hon. W. W. Rockhill, American minister 
at Peking, say that Koreans were the greatest 
smokers in the world. If measured by the 
time the pipe is in the mouth, they certainly 
are, but if it be a question of tobacco consumed, 
the Korean may very easily fall behind the 
Westerner. He is a deliberate, comfortable, 
unconscious smoker, so apathetic in his en- 
joyment of the long pipe, that you hardly 
know whether he has the smoke or the smoke 
has him. Cares and anxieties are whiffed 
away; the fumes curl through his soul softly, 
benignly, sleepily. The Westerner, on the 
other hand, pulls fiercely, chews the end, swal- 
lows the fumes, and takes the consequences, 
the result being, that in one half hour he has 
consumed more tobacco than the Korean will 


Tobacco 


Minerals 


10 KoREA IN TRANSITION 


in a day. To even matters however, Korean 
smoking means a united pull, men, women, 
and children at it from first cockcrow of the 
morning till the curfew says ‘Lights out.’ It 
is as difficult to find a man who does not smoke 
as it is to find a ten-year-old son of a gentle- 
man who is not married.” This extended ref- 
erence to tobacco is by no means out of propor- 
tion to the place it occupies in the life and 
habits of the nation. I notice that among 
Korean Church leaders and teachers there is 
a quiet but most emphatic putting away of the 
pipe and all that goes with it. It is one of the 
old kings whose power to command allegiance 
is gone forever. 

Korea is a land supposedly rich in minerals, 
such as gold, silver, copper, iron, coal, and 
graphite, but because of the sacred character 
of the hills, and of the spirits supposed to re- 
side within them, very little mining has been 
ventured upon. Now however the audacious 
Westerner, who regards neither hill-gods nor 
devils, is at it in various parts of the land, 
blasting the rocks, sinking shafts deep into 
the earth, hauling out the debris, grinding it 
to powder, extracting the gold by a magic 
spell hitherto undreamed of. Koreans are as- 


THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE II 


sociated with him in this work; they see and 
take part in their humble way, and have won 
the name of the best miners in the world from 
managers who have had experience in Cali- 
fornia, Australia, and elsewhere. One of 
Korea’s future sources of great wealth is 
undoubtedly mining, but seeing that it is 
managed and owned by Americans, English, 
and Japanese, the Korean’ will come in for 
only a modest and secondary share of the 
profits. 

Money is called ton, and while Chinese tones 
are absent from our problem of the lan- 
guage, the problem of ton is*always here. 
Two words wedded together are wafted on 
every breeze that blows, ton, money, and pap, 
rice. They are the ultimate to which all hearts 
aspire and all energies seem directed. Twenty, 
years ago Korean money was the cash piece 
with a hole through it. It took six horses to 
carry one hundred dollars, and pocket-money 
was out of the question. While the old cash 
is still seen in some remote corners of the land, 
it has almost entirely vanished into the for- 
gotten past, its place taken by the nickel, that 
has been counterfeited and forged and smug- 
gled and made such unlawful use of that its 


Money 


Transportation 


I2 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


name and character are ruined forever. Money 
without the hole in the middle Koreans call 
mang-jun (blind money), and so they nat- 
urally inquire, “Will a country not go to pieces 
that uses blind money?” We still use the nickel 
to a limited degree, but Japanese currency and 
a new coinage have come into general use— 
gold, silver, paper. 

In America transportation has been from the 
first by means of carts and wagons, and later 
by railway, but in Korea it has been and still 
nearly altogether is by pack-bullock, pony, and 
coolie. Animals and men are built to carry 
great loads. Every beast of burden is keyed 
up like the Brooklyn Bridge to measure its 
strength by the middle of its back. The coolie, 
again, differs from the strong man of the West 
in that his arms are of very little account, little 
better than a sea-lion’s flippers, but when it 
comes to muscles up and down his back, he is 
a marvel of strength and can lift 500 pounds. 
On these patient bodies are slowly carried over 
the land, rice, beans, hides, timber, fish, salt, 
Bibles, hymn-books, evangelistic literature, and 
other burdens, cutting deeper and deeper into 
the rock and rotten granite the footmarks of 
successive generations. 


THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 13 


The weather in Korea is blocked out in great 
lots, not distributed evenly and piece by piece 
as at home. When the sun shines it shines for 
days with unclouded sky, one month, two 
months, three months, with scarce a fleck on 
the horizon. Toward the close of these long 
spells, the very earth seems to cry out of its 
thirsty, soul for water. Then the rains come; 
first what is called the little chang-ma (great 
rain), and then the great “great rain.” When 
this is fully under way, it comes down in 
double spouts, tin cans, and buckets. Percival 
Lowell says: “During the month of July the 
sun rarely shines; it is cloudy almost contin- 
ually and nearly every day it rains. It stops 
raining only to gather force to rain again, and 
the clouds remain the while to signify the rain’s 
intention to return.” Dr. Underwood says: 
“The largest rainfall that is recorded is 5 
inches in twenty-four hours; 21.86 inches for 
a rainy season. The average yearly rainfall is 
36 inches.”? 

Mortals are supposed to have, directly and 
indirectly, an influence on the weather. When 
the electric trolley-cars were first set running 
in Seoul, a peculiar result manifested itself in 

1The Call of Korea, 26. 


Weather 


Trolley-cars 
Blamed for 
Drought 


Temperature 


14 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


the life of the nation. We quote from an ac- 
count that appeared in the Outlook, February, 
1902. “Little by little the heavens grew dry 
and the earth rolled up clouds of dust; day 
followed day with no signs of rain, and the 
caking paddy-fields grinned and gaped. What 
could be the cause of it? The geomancers and 
ground-prophets were consulted, and their 
answer was, ‘The devil that runs the thunder 
and lightning wagon has caused the drought.’ 
Eyes no longer looked with curiosity but glared 
at the trolley-cars, and men swore under their 
breath and cursed the ‘vile beast’ as it went 
humming by, till, worked up beyond endurance, 
there was a crash and an explosion, one car 
had been rolled over, and another was set on 
fire, while a mob of thousands took possession 
of the streets foaming and stamping like wild 
beasts.” This was all on account of the ma- 
lign influence which these American electric 
cars were supposed to have on the rainfall 
of Korea! 

As for the weather and temperature in gen- 
eral, taking Seoul as our representative point, 
it is cold in winter and hot in summer. Fre- 
quently the temperature falls to zero and even 
lower, while in summer with a damp, muggy 


THe LAND AND THE PEOPLE 15 


atmosphere, it goes up to 86 or go degrees. 
This constitutes a kind of Turkish bath very 
trying to the Westerner. 

To hear a missionary physician read his an- 
nual report, and line off the list of diseases that 
have afflicted Korea’s unhappy people for the 
space of one year, would leave one to infer that 
the only missing complaint was ‘housemaid’s 
knee’, for surely everything else in the cata- 
logue from leprosy to anthrax is present; but 
this is only nominally so. Actually and really 
we see only a few diseases at work.. First and 
foremost is hak-jil, ague. Rare indeed is the 
person who has not had a periodic chill; as 
rare as the man who does not smoke, or the 
man who cannot sleep comfortably on a hot 
floor with a wooden block behind his ear. 
Korea is a land of chills and fever. There is 
also smallpox, but the percentage of pitted faces 
has decreased wonderfully since the coming in 
of Jenner’s great preventive. Typhus fever is 
heard of on all sides at certain seasons of the 
year; and, following close on the summer, 
comes Asiatic cholera. Consumption is com- 
mon to all the land, but diseases like typhoid 
fever and appendicitis seem rare. Scattered 
cases of leprosy are met with, and, as in Judea 


Diseases 


Netional Odors 


16 KoreEA IN TRANSITION 


in old days, there are always the lame and the 
halt and the blind. 

As each nation has its peculiar cut of dress, 
so each has its national odors apart from race 
odor. Esson Third says: “The Korean gentle- 
man carries about with him two odors that are 
specially noticeable to a newcomer. I once 
made a journey with a Western friend who 
had a somewhat highly keyed sense of smell, 
and I remember his stopping short on the road 
as we walked along, tapping me on the arm 
and with a long sniff saying: 

‘There it is again.’ 

‘What is it?’ I asked. 

‘That peculiar smell,’ said he. 

I sniffed long and hard but there was noth- 
ing but the fresh morning breeze, and the de- 
lightful odors of hill and field. 

‘I’ve smelt it before,’ said he, ‘and [ll tell 
you later when I smell it again.’ 

He tracked that odor for two days, and then 
we discovered that it came from the black lac- 
quer hat. The odor of lacquer is one of 
Korea’s national smells. The second smell is 
due to a mixture of garlic, onions, cabbage, 
salt, fish, and other ingredients, that make up 
the Korean pickle so greatly enjoyed with their 


THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 17 


rice. This odor clings like that of Limburger 
cheese, and follows the native to church and 
into all the other walks of life.” 

Compared with the Western world, with its National Sounds 
indescribable hubbub, Korea is a land of the 
most reposeful silence. There are no harsh 
pavements over which horses are tugging their 
lives out, no jostling of carts or dray-wagons, 
no hateful clamor that forbids quiet conversa- 
tion, but a repose that is inherent and eternally, 
restful. The rattle of the ironing-sticks is not 
nerve-racking, but rather serves as a soporific 
to put all the world to sleep. Apart from this, 
one hears nothing but the few calls and echoes 
of human voices. What a delightfully quiet 
land is Korea! In the very heart of its great 
city Seoul, you might experiment at midday in 
the latest methods of rest-cure and have all the 
world to help you. 

Among other restful national features are the The Roads 
roadways. They are not surveyed at right 
angles and fenced in with barbed-wire, but are 
left to go where they please, do as they like, 
and take care of themselves, just as suits them. 
Hence a Korean road will find the easiest pos- 
sible way over a hill. It will narrow itself 
down to a few inches rather than pick a quarrel 


General Aspect 


Houses 


18 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


with a rock or hummock on the way, or again 
to please you it will widen out like a Western 
turnpike. To follow a Korean road is like 
reading one of Barrie’s novels, you meet with 
surprises and delights all along the way. 

While the general aspect of Korea is a sad 
and desolate one, that of a mountainous land 
shorn bare of its trees and foliage, there are 
pretty vistas and views that break out occasion- 
ally from behind the hills. As a people Koreans 
thoroughly enjoy natural beauty, but they have 
taken no steps whatever to conserve it. Trees 
and grass and brushwood and flowering shrubs. 
everything in fact that grows, comes under the 
woodman’s sickle, and is shaved bare as the 
locks of a Buddhist priestess. Around the cap- 
ital, especially, the hills have been denuded so 
often that the rains have washed away the 
upper soil and left them gray-topped and bare. 
There is a wide field for the work of forestry in 
Korea. 

In the hidden and often picturesque nooks 
nestle clusters of brown huts thatched with 
straw. In and out of these mud beehives go 
people dressed in immaculate white. A hut 
is built by first pounding the earth for the 
foundation-stones, then setting up the posts 


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poomaaprrry 7 poomsapuy 4ysjahdog 


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18 


THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 19 


and beams. Between the posts are put cross- 
bars and bamboo lathing, then mud is plastered 
on the inside and out. It is not just common 
mud, but carefully prepared mud, that will not 
crack and let in the wind. For flooring, flat 


stones are used, placed over flues; a thin layer 


of mud covers the surface and makes it even. 
Then the whole inside is papered with white 
paper on the walls and thick yellow oil-paper 
on the floor. The windows are of paper also. 
When the fire is built in the kitchen, the heated 
vapors from it pass underneath the living- 
rooms ; the stone floors warm gently, and here, 
cross-legged, you take up your abode. 

A friend called just now, and I asked him 
to please take off his horsehair hat and let me 
weigh it. The whole hat, crown, brim, border, 
string, and other parts, weighed just one and 
a quarter ounces. How light and ethereal the 
Korean garb is, especially in summer! If we 
follow Mr. Kim from the crown of his head 
to the tip of his toe, his wearing-apparel 
would run thus: first, the ounce and a quarter 
hat; then the inner cap, lighter still; then the 
headband, equally light; then the spectacles, 
the long outer robe, the inner coat, the rattan 
jacket, worn in hot weather next the skin, the 


Dress 


20 KorREA IN TRANSITION 


pantaloons, the leggings, the socks, the shoes. 
The material is cotton goods made wide and 
loose and roomy. In a dress like that you may 
sit all day cross-legged without a suggestion 
of bagging at the knees, perhaps because they 
are all bags, and wide enough to accommodate 
the wearer two or three times over. White is 
the prevailing color, but bright tints and hues 
are interspersed, especially with young people, 
so that a school yard alive at recreation hour 
looks like a fluttering congregation of blue- 
birds, orioles, and robins. The belt, or girdle- 
string, binds the man of the East together, just 
as suspenders serve for girders and mainstays 
for the man at home. The woman’s dress dif- 
fers somewhat from that of the man, but white, 
loose, baggy, badly gripped and held in place, 
unsuited for a busy, dirty world such as this is, 
would apply equally to both. 

The Korean is a stranger to sweets, and 
no sugar-sticks ever tempted the children of 
his land. Honey is used in small quantities, 
but chocolate creams, and fudge, and sweet 
sodas through a straw, and ices, he never 
dreamed of even in connection with Nirvana. 
In place of these his delights have been of the 
salt and peppery kind. He has chilli sauce and 


THe LAND AND THE PEOPLE 21 


chilli soy, salt and red peppers mixed in pickle, 
and greens and soup. The average foreigner 
who tries Korean food is compelled at short 
intervals, to open his mouth, draw in cool 
breaths, and fan wildly. The tears in his eyes 
and his general look of agony would lead one 
to infer that he had been dining off live coals 
instead of plain rice and cabbage pickle, and 
soup and beans and soy. This is the Korean 
average meal every day and all the year round. 
They are not great meat eaters, rice, beans, and 
cabbage taking the place of meat, potatoes, and 
bread. It is a very monotonous fare, and yet 
men are strong in the strength of it and can 
work like horses and carry enormous loads. 

(tn soul the Korean is the son of a Chinaman, 
but in language he is related to Japan. He 
can sound both / and r, while the Japanese has 
to say gay-roo for girl, and the Chinaman says 
Amellican for American) The Korean stands 
between them not in heart and geographical 
position only, but in a still greater sense, we 
trust, that will be manifest in days to come. 
Korean is a simple speech, unartificialized by 
a fixed set of rules and a printed literature like 
our own. It belongs to Gospel times, for while 
it labors hard to express Romans and Gala- 


Language 


The Complete 
but Changing 
Picture 


22 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


tians, the Gospels speak forth from it beauti- 
fully. While expressing the simplicities of 
life most appropriately, it is a hard language 
to learn with its honorifics and Chinese de- 
rivatives. } 

Wilfthe reader then please enter into this in- 
troductory picture of Korea, joining compan- 
ionship with these millions dressed in their odd 
garments, moving about in cities, among the 
mountains, and between the waving rice-fields, 
blessed with the sunshine and the rain, sorrow- 
ing, suffering, ignorant of time, ignorant of 
eternity, dying off one generation after an- 
other, each smoking its pipe of self-satisfaction, 
dreaming that it was rich and increased in 
goods and had need of nothing, speaking no 
end of salutation, peace, peace, when there was 
no peace? On this procession has wended, 
till twenty years and more ago, when there 
struck an hour on the clock that marks off 
the ages, and the gates of the Hermit swung 
wide open, and in stepped forces that have 
since been mingling mightily with what has 
been touched on in the opening paragraphs. 
All things are changing so rapidly, so radically, 
that we wonder whither we are going. To 
this quiet, unsophisticated people have come no 


THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 23 


end of wild surprise and political upheaval, 
unutterable despair and blind suicide. 

But in the midst of this crashing and break- 
ing up of every ideal come callers not dreamed 
of before. One is Peter. He says: “Are you 
a low-caste man? So was I. Are you dead 
beat? So was I. Do you long for victory? 
So did I. One name solved all my troubles, 
just one name, let me whisper it to you, ‘Jesus, 
Jesus, Jesus; so the vibrations carry it as by 
wireless telegraphy from Peter’s lips to the 
farthest limits of the land.” 

Another preacher follows, hard to under- 
stand. Paul is his name. He asks: “Are you 
an aristocrat and a scholar? God has no use 
for aristocrats. He wants sinners, the un- 
thankful, the unholy. Which class do you be- 
long to? Stricken from off my exalted seat, 
down in the dust I first recognized him. Shut 
your eyes to the world, get into Straight street, 
and try prayer.” 

Another preacher is Jesus’ mother. Mary 
says: “So many people were round about him 
I could not get near. All I wanted was just 
to see Jesus. His answer was: ‘Who wants 
me? My mother? Why all you Korean peo- 
ple need to see me just as badly as my mother 


Spiritual Voices 
—Peter 


Paul 


Mary 


Factors of 
Her Destiny 


24 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


does. Look on me as she does with love, and 
you'll be my mother, and sister, and brother.’ ” 

Korea’s heart beats one with China. The 
chords struck across the Yalu find response 
here. She is under Japan tighter than lock 
and key can make her. Has God a purpose 
for the Far East with his hand upon her, and 
she between these two mighty questions of the 
world, China and Japan? 


SUGGESTIONS FOR USING THE QUESTIONS 


The questions below, as their title indicates, are in- 
tended to be suggestive. They make no pretense to 
review the contents of each chapter. Such a memory 
test can easily be constructed by any leader or student 
by writing out the contents of the chapter and then 
expanding them without the aid of the text. The 
present questions are intended to stimulate original 
thought, and they therefore use the text-book only as 
a point of departure. 

Leaders may find it profitable to assign some of these 
questions in advance for study and discussion. It will 
usually be better to discuss a few questions thoroughly, 
rather than to try to cover the entire set. In many 
cases the leader can fit them better to the use of a par- 
ticular class by careful rewording. 

If they are used in private study, it is recommended 
that conclusions be written out. It is not expected that 
the average student will be able to answer all these 
questions satisfactorily; otherwise there would be little 
left for the class session. Let results, however frag- 


THE LAND AND THE PEOPLE 25 


mentary, be brought to the class and supplemented 
by comparison and discussion. 

The questions marked * are perhaps most worth 
discussing in detail. 


SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER I 


Arm: To CoME INTO SYMPATHY WITH THE LAND AND 
PEOPLE ¢ 


1. Space and Time Distances. 


I. 


Compare the area and population of Korea 
with that of the State or Province in which 
you live, 

How does it contrast in area and population 
with the combined States of New York and 
Pennsylvania? 

How large would the States of New York and 
Pennsylvania seem to you if we had only the 
Korean means of intercommunication? 

How far do you think you would have traveled 
from home under such circumstances? 

About how long would it take you to go from 
Boston to Richmond, Virginia, on a pony, if 
the roads were bad? 

Try to estimate the relative size of Korea and 
the United States measured by the time con- 
sumed in travel. 

Try to imagine what your life would be like 
if you were entirely cut off from modern 
means of transportation. 


II. Influence of Environment on Character. 


8. 


What sort of climate would you choose for a 
nation in order that its inhabitants might de- 
velop the strongest character? 


26 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


9. Find on a map of North America points which 
approximate the latitude of the northern and 
southern limits of Korea. 

10. What are the relative advantages of a nation 
of extended latitude and extended longitude? 

11.* Try to discover some of the influences that 
have made the Koreans inexact in their mental 
processes. 

12. What do the comparative methods of smoking 
reveal to you of Korean and Western char- 
acter? 

13. What advantages will Korea derive in the 
future from her comparatively compact area? 

14.* What things in the physical features of Korea 
give you most hope for the future? 


Ill. The Inevitable Changes. 


15.* If Korea were made over to you as a gift, 
what measures would you take to improve 
your property? Name in order of their 
importance. 

16.* Describe what you think would be the effect 
of each of these physical improvements on 
the life of the people. 

17. To what extent are these changes inevitable 
in Korea? 

18. What would be the probable effect upon an 
ignorant country boy without principles of 
being suddenly thrust into city life? 

19.* In what ways does this example illustrate the 
present position of Korea? 

20. What would be the effect of Western civiliza- 
tion upon a primitive people without the con- 
straint of Christianity? 

21. For what reasons do you think this land de- 
serves the sympathy of the Christian Church? 


Tue LAND AND THE PEOPLE ay 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY 
CHAPTER I 


I. Resources. 

Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. I, pp. 274, 
275. 

Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 14-18, 391, 
392, 445. 

Underwood: The Call of Korea, pp. 23-35. 

Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, pp. 20-22. 

Noble: Ewa: A Tale of Korea, pp. 11-13. 


Il. Transportation. 
Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. XVIII. 
Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, p. 128. 
Ill. Recent Improvements. 


Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. XXXIV. 
Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 435-443. 


THE NATION’S PRESENT 
SITUATION 


a9 


HISTORICAL SKETCH 


It seems best, as Dr. Gale has done, to avoid a discussion 
of the causes leading to the Japanese control of Korea. On 
this subject bitter charges and countercharges have been 
made, and the complete truth is not easy to discover. A brief 
table is given, however, to indicate the principal political 
events since 1876: 


1876. First foreign treaty of Korea with Japan. 


1883. First treaties with the United States, Germany, and 
Great Britain. First American minister to Korea, 


1885. China and Japan sign convention agreeing not to send 
troops into Korea without previous consultation. 
Chinese influence dominant. 


1894. China sends troops into Korea to repress Tong-hak 
rebellion. This leads to war between China and 
Japan. Japanese influence dominant. 


1895. Queen of Korea assassinated by Japanese and Koreans, 


1896. King takes refuge in Russian legation in Seoul. Rus 
sian influence dominant. 


1898. Japan and Russia agree to recognize the independence 
of Korea and to abstain from interference. 


1904. Russia’s encroachments lead to war with Japan. Korea 
agrees to accept the advice of Japan as to admini 
tration, and Japan guarantees the independence of 
Korea. Virtual Japanese protectorate. 


1905. ane secures control of the foreign relations of Korea. 
arquis Ito becomes Resident-General. 


1907. Bepey of Korea forced to abdicate in favor of the 
ee Prince. The Resident-General in complete 
control. 


In general it may be said that Japan has assumed control 
of Korea in order to exclude any further possibility of Rus- 
‘sian intrigue, to which the Korean government had always 
been susceptible. The administration initiated by Marquis 
Ito is undoubtedly far more efficient and modern than that 
which it displaced. On the other hand, it is claimed that the 
Koreans have suffered many abuses at the hands of the 
Japanese soldiers and settlers. 


3° 


II 
THE NATION’S PRESENT SITUATION 


Over the hill from my home, in a little house 
with tiled roof, lives a widow, Mrs. Shin. Her 
family consists of mother-in-law, son seven- 
teen years of age, long waited for, now a man, 
daughter fourteen, and Samuel her youngest, 
aged four. It did not attract much attention 
from the outside world, this home, but it was 
everything to the humble inhabitants thereof. 
Su-nam, the tall son, was the new, strong flag- 
staff around which age and tender years ral- 
lied. Through many seasons of hardship and 
sorrow, this home had come to commit its way 
to God, to trust also in him, knowing that he 
would bring it to pass. True Christians they 
were and Su-nam was their hope and joy. 

He was on a visit to Ping yang when yes- 
terday (July 27), between the torrents of fall- 
ing rain, there came a telegram to me saying, 
“Su-nam drowned.” What a dire stroke for 
that poor home in two short words, a double- 
edged sword cutting to the hilt through the 


For introductory material to this chapter see opposite page. 
ge 


Su-nam 


Sorrow’s Unit — 


of Measure 


Korea’s 
Desolation 


32 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


‘ center of the soul! With this information in 


hand I crossed the hill to Mrs. Shin’s house. 
They were at evening meal in the little veranda 
round a very small table. With smiles they 
greeted my coming, for I was their friend, and 
would bring good cheer and hope. What 
cruelty! I was to turn all these smiles into an 
agony of woe unspeakable. “Alas,” I said, “I 
have news, such news as will break your hearts, 
God help us all!’ Every face instantly fixed 
itself into an expression of pained suspense, 
and I went on, “God has called Su-nam. He is 
drowned.”’ The little girl of fourteen, as if 
shot with a rifle bullet, broke into a cry that 
would melt the soul; the mother dropped on 
her face but no word passed her lips; the old 
grandmother, whose hopes were on this boy, 
lifted up her heart to heaven and said, “We 
thank thee, O Father. Thou didst give Su- 
nam; thou hast taken Su-nam; blessed be thy 
name.” 

Multiply this heart-breaking scene to a 
family of fifteen millions, and make their little 
table this desolated peninsula, and you will 
have some idea of what Korea has passed 
through in the last few sad years. Indescrib- 
able is the wailing that has gone up and beating 


THE NATION’S PRESENT SITUATION 33 


of the breast over the death and burial of hopes, 
aspirations, and long-cherished desires. 

Korea’s was a patriarchal form of govern- 
ment from the beginning. Officials were often 
still but callow youths, but by reason of office 
they were magnified and glorified into mature 
age with beard and rod of authority. The peo- 
ple at large were their children, whom they 
fathered, arrested, beat, stood in a corner, kept 
in after school, or set digging weeds, just as 
they saw fit, and no reply would be forthcom- 
_ ing, except perhaps a wail open-mouthed and 
loud such as children break out with, but with 
a voice fifty or sixty years of age. 

Under this system the people individually 
were nothing, and they were reasonably con- 
tent to be so, provided their ancient customs 
continued. They were oppressed and down- 
trodden, but it was oppression dealt out accord- 
ing to custom, and custom is higher than law. 
This was their country and they were free to 
love or kill each other with no foreigner to 
interfere. To them patriotism consisted in 
minding your own business, and keeping clear 
of the official’s long-handled paddle, but on the 
opening of the gates and the inrush of Western 
life all is changed. Now Korea must awake 


The Way that 
Failed 


Misrule 


The Retired 
Emperor 


34 Korea IN TRANSITION 


and adjust herself to a new age, or the age 
would roll over and crush her forever. For 
twenty years Korea had a chance to get into 
line with these new forces, but it was not to be. 
It was a question of life and death, but she was 
not able. Many saw it, many spoke thereof. 
As great father for the land was the deposed 
emperor, chosen of God to bring his people to 
a state of woe unexampled, under which how- 
ever we believe there lie hidden hopes higher 
than she has ever dreamed of. The emperor 
could say as Louis XIV did, “L’état c’est moi” 
(“The state, I am the state’’), though he forgot 
that he was not the twentieth century, and 
forgot other outside forces as well. His walk 
was backward. Kings of the Orient until recent _ 
years have favored the rearward march in their 
movings, or else their eyes have been hope- 
lessly fixed in the back of the head; for with 
fixed gaze on Yo-sun (2300 B. C.), they have 
backed up into all sorts of confusion, never 
seeing where they were going until too late, 
dreaming only of the past from which they 
had emerged, no progress ever contemplated, 
no reform undertaken lest it detract from the 
glory of Yo and Sun the king-gods of the 
Golden Age. The retired emperor was un- 


THE NATION’S PRESENT SITUATION 35 


doubtedly an instrument used of God to humble 
his own land. It was impossible to bring him 
into touch with any new era. He was kind and 
gentle and often full of compassion, but a sug- 
gestion of reform would rouse the demon with- 
in him, and he would clap thumbscrew and tor- 
ture rack onto the friend of yesterday and have 
him drawn and quartered forthwith. During 
the twenty years that he was on trial for his 
life, he failed at every point. This is the first. 
thing to remember in considering the position: 
of Korea to-day politically. She was brought 
to it by the retired emperor being out of touch 
with the age he lived in. 

There was another factor to be reckoned 
with, namely, Japan; and the retired emperor 
and his people both emphatically disliked Japan. 
From earliest times they had marked her by 
abusive terms WVa-ro (slaves of Wa), To-man 
(island savages), Wai-nom (foreign knaves) ; 
while Japan spoke of Koreans as Han-kak 
(honored guests of Han). Nothing could 
bring them together. Religion? The Japanese 
prayed to Buddha and the Shinto gods, while 
Korea was Confucian. Japan exalted the 
sword, and Korea despised her, for she herself 
worshiped the pen. 


Japa 


Korea's Day 
of Reckoning 


Opposing 
Factors 


36 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


Korea through its ruler was out of touch 
with the age in which it lived; in heart, sym- 
pathy, and tradition it was out of touch with 
the Japanese, and yet here were these three 
gradually coming to occupy the same room, 
and the same bed, at the same time: the twen- 
tieth century, the Korean emperor, and the 
spirit of Japan; unsuited as fire and water, or 
wood and lightning, destined to kick and smash 
and resist until one of them was reduced to 
hopeless and non-resisting silence, 

The emperor too and his people were not at 
one. Esson Third wrote some years ago: “The 
Korean emperor has no confidence in his peo- 
ple, and his people have no use for the Japan- 
ese, and the Japanese have no faith in the 
emperor. Reverse it and it is still correct. The 
emperor mistrusts the Japanese, the Japanese 
have no confidence in the people, and the peo- 
ple despise the emperor.” Reform was stamped 
out. The best and most enlightened men were 
shut up in prison. It was a fight on the part of 
the old emperor, single-handed, against his own 
people, against the onrolling centuries, with 
the Japanese accompanying, keeping pace and 
persistently shouting “Banzai” (long live our 
emperor). 


VANOY NI IVAINA LNAGISAY LSA ‘OL] sINOAV] NIJ JONING 


poomianns ® noo wianuA “yAAdoD poomsapuy) » poomMiapug 4AuAdop 


THe NATION’s PRESENT SITUATION 27 
37 


Then it was that men’s hearts began to fear Looking Toward 
and to turn toward Christianity. Wiser ones os ad 
said, “All the forces of the universe are bear- 
ing down upon us; unless God help we are 
lost.” It was the beginning of the awakening 
in the Korean’s soul to the helpless condition 
of his country. Once, on a call at his home, 
Prince Min said to the writer, “Pray for Korea. 
God can help us if no one else can.” Eyes that 
never looked heavenward before did so now in 
view of uncertainties. 

The emperor, by his old “underground” 
methods, was in touch with Russia, anxious for 
her belated civilization, if he could not hold on 
to 2000 B. C., but every move turned against 
him, everything was out of gear. On Novem- 
ber 17, 1905, in the dead of night, at. the 
Palace in Chung dong, Seoul, the first pay- 
ment was made for all the mistaken years, the 
wrongs done and suffered, and the lies toid 
and unrepented of. It was made by the sign- 
ing of the treaty of that date, giving over to 
the Japanese government the control of Korea’s 
foreign affairs. On receipt of this news, Prince 
Min concluded that his country was gone and 
that he would die with it. He locked himself 
away from all his friends, wrote out his will, 


FirstRetributive 
Results 


The Final Crisis 


The Aftermath 


38 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


and a few farewell letters, and then with a 
dull, short pocket-knife accomplished his own 
quietus. Written large round his name, Korea 
will ever read the sentence, “Sweet and seemly 
is it to die for one’s fatherland.” 

Again in July, 1907, another crisis was 
reached. The nation that had so long at- 
ternmpted to sail in a leaky boat, and had per- 
sistently clubbed any man who had tried to 
stop the chinks, was going down, The water 
was deep and all straws were caught at, Russia, 
The Hague, Mr. Hulbert, Hawaiian Petition, 
Bethell and Company, appeal to rifles; but 
everything failed. The Japan-Korea Treaty 
of July 24, 1907, resulted, and the last act of 
the drama was the exit of the old emperor-king. 
He was asked to move out and make way for 
oncoming generations, to sign away all rights 
as emperor, king, autocrat; to abdicate once 
and for all. The wildest cry was of no avail. 
There was no resisting; force sufficient was 
back of the order to project him into eternity, 
and so he bowed to the inevitable. According 
to the understanding of the people at large, 
the last breath was drawn, and Korea had 
expired. 

A mad sort of spurious patriotism started 


THe NATION’s PRESENT SITUATION 39 


into being, with suicide, chopping off of fingers, 
swom oaths, guerilla warfare, flint-lock re- 
sistance. It still goes on to a considerable de- 
gree, while the poor people in the valleys, 
caught between the contending forces, have to 
pay the price of Korea’s past failure. With 
the question as to how in other ways she came 
to such a pass as this, as to where the right 
and wrong of it lay, as to what ought to have 
been done and what ought not to have been 
done, it is not in our province to deal. Here 
she is to-day. If it had not been the Japanese, 
certainly the twentieth century single-handed 
would have crushed the old emperor and all 
he represented out of existence. Evidently the 
purpose in this plan of God was to bring Korea 
to a place where she would say, “All is lost, 
T am undone.” Like Mrs. Shin and her house- 
hold, nothing remained for the people but to 
commit the whole burden of it to the Lord 
himself. 

First and foremost they had lost their coun- 
try. There have been men who have had no 
citizenship, and who have passed the pilgrim- 
age of life without flag or nationality, unpro- 
tected by state or consular arm of the law, but 
most people would feel unhappy under such cir- 


Looking for a 
Country 


jobn 
Chinmaman's 
Country in 
Heaven 


40 Korea IN TRANSITION 


cumstances. Even Paul emphatically made 
announcement of the fact that he was a Roman 
citizen, and as good a man as Dr. Guido F. Ver- 
beck knocked at the state entrance of Japan, 
requesting that they please take him in, as he 
and his family were without country and felt 


’ shelterless. 


Still, there are those who overcome such 
sentiments and walk the earth victoriously. A 
Chinese lived in Yokohama some twelve years 
ago. He was a house-painter by. occupation, 
and went about wearing a very much bedaubed 
suit of clothes, caked here and there with white 
and green and yellow. He was a Christian and 
attended church regularly. When the leader 
said, “Let any one pray who will,” John 
never failed to take part. The gladness of 
his soul spoke itself forth in a kind of Can- 
tonned Japanese, the full meaning of which 
was known to himself and God only. When 
the Shinasan (Mr. Chinaman) prayed, many 
a face in the room became wreathed in smiles 
and sometimes a hand was necessary over the 
mouth to help hold the hearer steady. John 
paid no attention, he cared not who laughed at 
his prayers, he was happy, God had forgiven 
him and though a Chinese, he had said good- 


Tue NATION’s PRESENT SITUATION 41 


by to the world, and cut his cue off. One day 
a Korean friend met him and said, “Honorable 
sir from the great country, where is your cue?” 
“Cue? Cue belong no good, makee cut off.” 
“But you will not dare to go home, you have 
lost your country.” “Maskee country,” said 
John, “my country belong Htien-kuoa, Htien- 
kuoa” (“Heaven, Heaven”), pointing upward. 

Could we but convey John’s upward look 
and happy spirit to the hearts and homes of 
Korea, we should have done the work for 
which all this agony of sweat and blood has 
prepared the way. The Korean says: “I have 
no country, no citizenship, no flag, no land 
that is my own, only the skeleton and remains. 
They are worse than nothing, ghastly, ought to 
be buried out of sight,” and the hoplessness 
of a worldly man with none of the world’s 
backing: settles over him. He did not know 
that his country was worth anything till he lost 
it. He abused it and disgraced it for genera- 
tions, still it was his; now it is dead, and no 
man is on hand to raise the dead to life. 

In former days when the state threatened 
collapse there were supports available. Rus- 
sia served at times, then France, sometimes 
China or England. Says friend Kim: 


Hope for the 
Hopeless 


Humaa Failore. 
Divine 
Faithfulness 


Like a Fairy 
Tale 


42 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


“America we were sure of, for the first article 
in our treaty with her read, ‘If other powers 
deal unjustly with either government, the one 
will exert its good offices, on being informed 
of the case, to bring about an amicable ar- 
rangement, thus showing its friendly feel- 
ings.’ England joined the enemy, and even 
America went back on us. Verbeck may have 
found a door to knock at but there is no door 
for lost Han.” How like oil on the troubled 
waters of the soul fall such sentences as these, 
“My kingdom is not of this world.” ‘Resist 
not.” “For our citizenship is in heaven.” 
There also we have our “city which hath the 
foundations, whose builder and maker is 
God.” . 

The possibility of a poor Korean, really and 
truly under such circumstances, knocking at 
the palace gates of heaven and making applica- 
tion for citizenship in the name of Jesus, being 
received, his name recorded, and a hapoy | 
peaceful heart given as proof thereof is like a 
fairy tale of the Taoists. It is like the story 
of the resurrected Jesus to Peter and his com- 
panions, a something that the women must 
have hatched up, but that sound-minded men 
could not receive. 


THE NaTION’s PRESENT SITUATION 43 


My friend Kim says: “We have no king. 
The one we had was a poor makeshift, to be 
sure, but anything is better than no king. He 
would never take a reprimand. The number 
of heads of chief officers that dropped during 
his reign was astounding. He was mighty in 
having his own way, and in keeping the people 
under. He used to say: ‘Don’t make a noise. 
Don’t talk about the government. Don’t fight 
each other and send petitions to the Palace. 
Just eat your rice, and do your work, and be 
good.’ When the people attempted to carry 
on the Independence Club, his majesty put up 
a notice on the Bell-kiosk, ‘Let there be no 
meetings, or shout-talk of any kind in the 
streets. You are commanded every man to 
stay at home and mind his own business.’ He 
handcuffed us, he robbed us, he paddled us, 
he hanged and quartered us, he lived for him- 
self alone and for his worn-out superstitions, 
but it was better than no king. So deeply is the 
patriarchal thought written on the heart, that 
bees could as easily swarm without a queen- 
bee as Korea lift up its head without some 
choice in the way of ruler.” 

The old king, after having been execrated 
for twenty years or more, suddenly swings 


Many Faults 
but Still Their 
King 


Turning toa 
Heavenly King 


The Higher 
Vision 


44 Korea IN TRANSITION 


into a niche of honor, by virtue of the death 


that his kingship dies. The Japanese, through 
the present cabinet, put his son on the throne 
in his place, but Kim knows nothing of that. 
He repeats, “Alas, there is no king to-day.” 
For these kingless, downcast, fifteen millions 
of Koreans there was written long ago, The 
name of your King is “Wonderful, Counsellor, 
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of 
Peace” 

What a day in which to proclaim the nature 
of his kingdom! He too was an Oriental. He 
too lived in a land fallen as to kingship. He 
too felt the shame of the nation’s loss. He died 
with and for guilty men. “He lives and holds 
in his hand all the kingdoms of the world, 
Japan as well as Judea. He brought you here 
under the harrow; he sent the Japanese that 
you might be taught to yield to him.” An old 
man with teeth out and cheeks fallen in says, 
“T used to be an officer of state myself, and 
my heart was caked hard with the doings there- 
of, but since I came to Jesus and he is my King, 
I love even the Japanese, and the mountains of 
the west over which my sun is setting are all 


. lighted up with glory.” 


Since 1122 B. C., when the Chinese sacred 


Tue Nation’s PRESENT SITUATION 45 


books were first brought to Korea by Viscount 
Ki, Korea has been a worshiper of literature. 
As the sycee-silver shoe might represent China, 
and the two-handed sword Japan, the brush 
pen with the bamboo handle would be the 
choice of all for Korea. Happy the man who 
knows its companionship, who can grip it verti- 
cally, strike across the page and bring his line 
to the required finish, mark it downward and 
not weaken at the end, cut east and west, dot, 
and turn the corner. It requires years to 
learn all this. The labor-blunted hand of the 
Westerner could never do it. The joy of writ- 
ing the characters takes its rise high up in the 
Korean’s heaven. Then the reading of them 
is like deciphering messages from the gods. 
The man who could do so well, was honored 
by king and commoner alike. To encourage 
this sublime art, there were periodical examina- 
tions held, to which candidates presented them- 
selves from all corners of the land. Many came 
hundreds of miles all the way on foot, in the 
hope of gaining some distinction at the Koaga 
(Examination). Though you failed, the fact 
that you were a candidate was distinction un- 
questioned. To pass and become a Koup-je 
clothed you with Korea’s most excellent glory. 


National Love 
of Literature 


Honor for 
Education 


Ojid Literature 
and School 
Methods 
Forsaken 


46 KoREA IN TRANSITION 


Throughout the land were schoolrooms, 
where lads gathered for study, singing out the 
lesson all together at the top of the voice. A 
third of the time they read, a third of the time 
they wrote, a third of the time they composed. 
So greatly are literature and education honored, 
that the common title, Mr. (So-bang), means 
really “Schoolroom” or we might better say 
“‘School-man’”’; so we have “School-man” this 
and “‘School-man” that. It may be Pak who 
digs weeds in the paddy-field and never studied 
a day in his life, but he too is “School-man” 
Pak, and he addresses his fellow laborer Koak 
as “School-man’? Koak. Everybody is a 
“School-man,”’ all over the land, by reason of 
the desire to share in even the shadow of 
the glory that goes with literature. 

The inrush of Goths and Vandals in 410 
and the sacking of Rome would not be con- 
sidered by a Korean more terrible than the 
forces that have recently pushed through the 
gateways of Korea. Western civilization, the 
twentieth century, and the Japanese are quite 
as fearful and barbarous a combination. Be- 
fore these all the choice idols of the land have 
fallen, and chief among them was Chinese lit- 
erature, now gone down to the eternal shades. 


THE NaTIon’s PRESENT SITUATION 47 


There are no more periodic examinations, no 
more singing off of the classics in hope of high 
honor and distinction, no more meditating over 
the Book of Changes. The bamboo pen lies 
dishonored, and the barking of ten-inch guns 
takes the place of infant voices singing out 
“Heaven blue, earth yellow,” and the other old 
school phrases. 

The Korean is a gentleman by instinct, he 
worships intellect and not the god of force. 
In his tears over his fallen divinity, he fumbles 
at the sword, thinking to try it, but the sword 
is not his, as it was not Peter’s. What shall 
he do for something that will take the place 
of all that he has lost? When in tears, just 
at this time there comes to him the Bible, sixty- 
six books, oldest in the world, written by 
thirty-six writers or more, among whom were 
shepherds and plowmen, as well as kings and 
princes. It stretches in its range over fifteen 
hundred years, including history, doctrine, and 
prophecy, in prose and verse; it points to 
the past, even back of the days of Yo and 
Sun; it speaks with kingly authority as to the 
present; turning its searchlights on into the 
vistas of the future; it tells of God, what he is, 
and what he has done; it solves the problem of 


Finding Biblicai 
Truth 


Wemav’s 
Preedom 


48 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


man, and his lost condition; it leads one on into 
places of deliverance, victory, and peace, Was 
there ever such a literature, and was there ever 
such a time as this? Let all hearts and hands 
unite in getting into his soul these divine and 
kingly truths. Some who were never scholars 
in the ancient classics have become men of 
mighty influence, because the heart has been 
filled with the sayings of sages such as Moses, 
Daniel, Isaiah, Peter, Paul, and John. 

Among the breaking down of ancient cus- 
toms to-day, Nai-woi is destined to go likewise. 
Now Nai-woi is not an Anamese nor an East 
Indian god, but an old Korean custom of ma- 
ture years and long standing. It has been 
like the feathers and paint on the red Indian 
giving him glory in the eyes of men, to the 
obliteration of his female partner, who is 
buried under the monotonies of life with the 
papoose on her back. Nai-woi means ‘inside- 
outside’, ‘prisoner-freeman’, ‘woman-man’. 
Because of Nai-woi, Korean women have 
gradually disappeared from the world of 
recognition, to the world of slavery and im- 
prisonment. 

History has-from time immemorial shown us 
a locked-up world of women, women made pris- 


Tue Nartion’s PRESENT SITUATION 49 


oners, bought and sold. Occasionally one has 
risen superior to her wrist-rings and shackles, 
and made her name and influence felt, but the 
woman’s world has been the dark curtained 
region full of oppression and despair. Jesus 
came and set the women of the world free. He 
seems to be the only one who knows how to 
unlock her prison-house, so as not to have it 
open into another equally woful. Korea’s 
women have been under the closest sort of 
battened down hatches. But the twentieth 
century has come in, holding aloft the name 
of Jesus and proclaiming all women free. 
What a consternation has been created in the 
breaking down of the middle wall, Nai-woi, 
fraught as it is with great danger as well as 
great hope. 

High women of the land who never saw 
sunshine or the open air till a few days ago, 
are suddenly shoved pell-mell into public func- 
tions and asked to drink champagne and be 
hail-fellow-well-met with all sorts and con- 
ditions of men. With no precedent behind, 
with no knowledge accompanying, and with 
no mature vision of the future, these women 
are drifting into uncertainty with all the barbed 
wires and safeguards of Nai-woi done away. 


Her New 
Perils 


Color and 
Woman’s 
Raiment 


Hope in Jesus 


Feach-red 


50 Korea In TRANSITION 


The East is full of color and can match the 
most glaring extremes in a way pleasing and 
grateful to the eye, but let it get out of its world 
into the tints of the West, and green screams 
out against magenta, and purple and red fight 
furiously. Soin dress, shovel hats and hollow- 
chested shirt-waists run riot with black skirts 
waisted high up under the arms. How sadly 
the once dreamy woman’s world of the East 
has developed under the harsh sunlight of to- 
day ! 

Where is hope to come from? Only from 
Jesus, seems the consensus of opinion, even 
among unbelievers. In lowly companionship 
with him the Eastern woman may safely meet 
the breaking down of custom. A few days 
ago a Christian official on a call said: “Our 
women are emancipated from the slavery that 
besets them, only to fall into a deeper and more 
deadly one. May God in his mercy protect 
and defend them!” 

As I write I see the face of one called To- 
hong (Peach-red). She was a low-class danc- 
ing-girl, bought and sold. Restoration was a 
word not applicable to her, for she never was 
right. She was born lapsed and lived lapsed. 
Over the walls of the world that encircled her 


THE NaTION’s PRESENT SITUATION 51 


came the story of Jesus, a man, a wise and pure 
man, pure as God is pure, in fact a God as God 
is God, yet it was said that he loved lost and 
fallen women. Peach-red had never before 
heard of such a being. Her soul was sick, and 
she wondered if she could but meet him what 
he would say to “the likes of her’, and if he 
really could cure soul-sickness. When or where 
or how Peach-red met Jesus I know not; that 
she met him I most assuredly know. Seven 
years had rolled away, and out of my life 
passed the name of Peach-red. It was for- 
gotten in the multitude of names that crowded 
on me. One Sunday, after service in a great 
meeting-house of some two thousand people. 
with this and that one coming forward to say 
“Peace,” there appeared before me a smiling 
face known and yet not known. “Don’t you 
remember me? Baptized me seven years ago. 
My old name was Peach-red.” Here was this 
woman in value once less than zero, crowned 
with the light and liberty and growth in grace 
of seven years. On long journeys over the 
mountains, hundreds of miles, on such a mis- 
sion as Paul’s through Europe had gone the 
unwearied feet of Peach-red. For seven years 
it had been a pilgrimage of victory, and she 


Social Barriers 
Removed 


*Pace’’ 


52 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


was here to-day with an overflowing heart 
to thank the Lord. 

By her side sat Madam Yee, wife of one of 
Korea’s noted men, once imprisoned, curtained 
round, secluded, shadowed by the awful form 
of Nai-woi, proud too, not deigning to look at 
such refuse as Peach-red. To-day they sit to- 
gether and Madam Yee says: “You know so 
much of the Bible. Let me listen while you 
read it. Truly you are dear.” Jesus had 
broken Nai-woi so that Madam Yee came to 
this crowded meeting-house. He had bridged 
the chasm that divided these two women. He 
had delivered the poor dancing-girl from the 
life of a broken Nai-woi and from the slavery 
under which she was held. Surely at such a 
day as this when the woman’s world is crashed 
into and the dividing walls are down, we need 
the gospel to point out the new and better way. 

The word “face,” Mo-yang, flourishes 
widely in the Far East and has one of the first 
claims on the heart of Korea. Be the dress 
however fine, unless the face be comely the 
man stands at a disadvantage. If he be fur- 
rowed and bristled over with a jungle of hair, 
the wearer may be Thomas Carlyle, and may 
have written Sartor Resartus, but that does 


THE NarTIONn’s PRESENT SITUATION 53 


not redeem him from a certain flavor of bar- 
barism. Perhaps the face of Yiian Shih-k‘ai 
would as nearly answer the ideal of Korea as 
any other, round, well set, carried with all 
dignity, agreeable toa look upon, proud, in- 
scrutable. This pertains to the outer face, 


_but there is an inner face that is the real ques- 


tion. We notice it when he says, “If I be put 
to shame, so that others know it, I have lost 
face.” Korea has no nerves to speak of, but 
any amount of abnormal appreciation of this 
word “‘face’’. 

Esson Third writes: “My neighbor across 
the way has had about seventeen dogs snarling, 
grinning, yelping, round his corn-stalk paling 
for the last forty-eight hours. All the discord- 
ant sounds imaginable have been repeated a 


million times. I inquired this morning as to: 


the neighbor and the neighbor’s wife, of what 
they were made—of wood, or mud, or dry 
bones—that they could tolerate forty-eight 
hours of such a pandemonium. My Korean 
friends could not understand what I meant. 
They understood the words but not the 
thought. What had these dog noises to do 
with the make-up of Mr. and Mrs. Chew. 
Chew is at peace, Mrs. Chew is at peace as 


Nerves 
Unaffected by 
Noise 


But Unable to 
Bear Criticism 


Loss of 
“Face” 


54 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


well, both are in possession of unbroken face. 
She has no diseased harp-strings in her soul, 
that get all on edge with every noise that the 
Orient gives off. I am struck with the differ- 
ence between Mrs. Chew, for example, and 
Thomas Carlyle. After forty-eight hours of 
yelpings, snarlings, screamings, she is in per- 
fect peace, and her soul reposes blissfully. 
Carlyle had had one night of it at the hands 
of a small dog over the way. He says, “By 
five o’clock in the morning, I would have given 
a guinea of gold for its hind legs firm in my 
right hand by the side of a good stone wall.” 

Mrs. Chew, unmoved after forty-eight hours 
of seventeen dogs, thinks what a diabolical 
frame of mind for any man to be in. Carlyle 
would die under this grinding of the nerves, 
but to die because of what others thought fail- 
ure he knew not. Nothing served better to 
rouse the war-horse within him and his bris- 
tling mane than to feel that he was the one man 
against forty million other Britishers, “mostly 
fools.” Not so Korea. 

In the recent political shipwreck the worst 
is that Korea has gone down with loss of 
“face”. This is why Min suicided. This is 
why the present brings a lonely shameful sense 


Tue NATION’s PRESENT SITUATION 55 


of death to the people. Not the loss of tangible 
property so much as this ruin of the proper 
form, is what the Korean dies under. Humilia- 
tion unspeakable has gripped his soul, and he 
says: “With what face can I look upon the 
whole world, with what face will I meet the 
spirits of my forefathers in the Yellow 
Shades?” 

However unreasonable this position’ may 
seem to be; how mutch better soever the pres- 
ent may seem as compared with the hopeless 
past, he views it not so. Friend Kim says, 
“Face is lost and eternal shame is my portion 
forever.”’ At such-a time as this, when he 
has written large over the portals of the future, 
Chul-mang-mun (the gateway of despair), 
“Abandon hope all ye who enter here,’ what 
a joy to be a missionary, called to such a time 
as this and to so needy a people to say to them: 

“Listen, while I read to you, ‘Why art thou cast 

down, O my soul? And why are thou dis- 
quieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I 
shall yet praise him, who is the help of my 
countenance, and my God.’”’ 

“Can he truly heal loss of face?” This 
is the question. Some think he can,—those 
who have tested him; some think he cannot,— 


An Evangel of 
Hope 


Reality of 
Divine Help 


Power in 
Alien Hands 


A Contrast 


56 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


those who have not. One young man by the 
name of Wonderful, T. J. Wonderful, spoke 
in last Wednesday’s meeting. He is a student 
twenty-two years old. He said: “I once looked 
with admiration upon a minister of state, I 
thought him the acme of all in all, till I learned 
God’s message to my soul. When that came, 
the whole world changed; in place of admira- 
tion, there was nothing but a pitiful longing 
left, and a prayer that he too might believe. 
For a world of fallen countenances there is 
no help like God.” 

Korea like all other nations loves power, 
power over the lives, destinies, and liberties 
of men. Millionaire kings are not seen here 
as at home, but official kings have always ex- 
isted. Then too there are kings of literature 
and kings of ancient aristocracy. Power is 
sweet, but when one cannot have it, the next 
best thing is to look up and admire the man who 
has, if you consistently can. To-day power 
has passed out of the Korean’s hand and into 
the hand of a man whom he cannot admire; 
hence there comes this feeling of desolation. 
Nominally power remains his still, but it is 
only the ghost and thin shades that we see. 

In olden days tax-levying, collecting, dis- 


THE NATION’s PRESENT SITUATION 57 


_bursing, transmitting, and other details of ad- 
ministration, provided an unlimited field, for 
the science of ‘squeeze’, and out of this grew 
one of Korea’s most deadly national sins. To- 
day no taxes pass through the Korean’s hand, 
except what he pays, or what he receives after 
permission of a Japanese official. This is the 
logical result of a long list of national wrong- 
doings, but it is bitter none the less. The yel- 
low harvests of rice and the long stretches of 
beans and millet have lost their poetry, and are 
flat and colorless. 

Then there was the field of office-seeking and 
appointing. Fierce were the tugs of war and 
glorious was the end to the victor with the 
spoils thereof. Happy the man who could ride 
down all opponents and get himself possessed 
of the two-handed paddle. To-day all this 
high privilege is in the hands of the Residency- 
General. To think of such a thing is like a 
nightmare from which he tries to shake him- 
self into substantial awakening. He finds 
however that the dream is real, and that the 
desired reality is only a dream. 

All educational matters, too, are in the hands 
of those who were once supposed to be illiterate 
island savages. They decide as to the course 


Office 


Education 


Mining 
Privileges 


The Customs 


The Military 


58 KorREA IN TRANSITION 


of study, as to grants, as to grades of schools, - 
as to teachers, as to everything that pertains 
to the world of letters. 

The hills that were given Korea by God four 
thousand years ago, sown rich with gold and 
silver, have waited in vain for the miner’s hand 
to dig them. Instead the Korean has peopled 
them with white and blue devils, who threaten 
him with dire destruction if he dare cut into 
their backs or tails.2. The result is, God has 
taken the hills away from him, and passed them 
onto others, and the Korean has no power to- 
day even to hold a mine, much less to grant 
concessions. 

The Customs, organized by Sir Robert Hart 
and developed by Sir John McL. Brown, are 
in the hands of the alien, too, and all the dollars 
that accrue therefrom. 

The Korean soldier who used to stand guard 
by the Palace gates or drill out in the open 
square has been spirited away. He has gone, 
and not even the echo of his bugle-call remains 
to us. He was the nation’s representative of 


power and glory, standing at present arms 


1The “ White Tiger’ and “Blue Dragon” as named in 
geomancy. 

2 A street in Seoul still shows the Dragon’s back protected 
by stones. 


THE NatTION’s PRESENT SITUATION 59 


beautifully, or giving the general salute when 
the king went by. Heis gone. The cicada-fly 
still sings, the tree-toad pipes, and the peasant 
quavers his old-fashioned throat notes of an 
evening, but “lights out” no longer greets the 
ear of the Korean soldier, and the reveille is 
silent. Only celestial armies, such as Elisha 
saw, fill the distant hills. Like a far-off whis- 
per comes the word: “All power is given unto 
me in heaven and on earth. Accept my life. 
Swing into line with me, and all your doings 
will be victorious.” 

These have been bitter years. Hatred, sus- 
picion, strife, with their accompaniments of 
bloodshed, burned villages, poverty, tears, and 
suicide, have cut deep into the souls of the peo- 
ple. Those whose hands were accustomed to the 
gentle methods of pipe and pen are to-day 
cold-blooded in the use of rifle, bayonet, and 
revolver. Every day the government papers 
report so many insurgents captured, so many 
wounded, so many shot. How men can hate, 
how they can lie and steal and murder, are old 
stories not+to be learned in the East only. Who 
can pour oil on the troubled waters? Who can 
say to Galilee, when the typhoon bears across 
it, and blind with fury, drives Peter, John, and 


Who is 
Sufficient ? 


60 KoreEA IN TRANSITION 


their associates toward the grinding rocks, 
who can lift his hand at such a time and say, 
“Steady, cease!’ Who can look on the man of 
failure, the man who has tried the sword and 
missed the mark, who has lied and sworn, and 
filled his heart with hatred and fear, a good- 
for-nothing, lost man, who by a look can melt 
such a one and bring him to his knees in tears 
of repentance? Who can say to prison doors, 
“Swing back”, and to all of Caesar’s guards, 
“Out of my way”? Who can speak and be 
heard by ears long dead? Who can turn 
a land of sorrow into glad rejoicing? Who 
can make me forget my wrongs, and love the 
man I hated, and make him whom I have 
wronged love me? Who can take zero and by 
multiplying it all down the ages make it spell 
infinity? Who can make out of poor Galilee 
drift-wood a being like Peter, almost divine? 
Who can bind together in one unbreakable 
bond of love Korea and Japan, and making 
them forget their mutual grievances, form of 
them a mighty people for the glory of his 

Father’s name? : 


THE NATION’s PRESENT SITUATION 61 


SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER II 


AIM: 
NATIONAL HUMILIATION 


E 


Bebe 


The 


rE. 


11.* 


To UNDERSTAND KoreA’s NEED IN HER 


National Humiliation. 


Why would the United States resent the pro- 
posal to choose a king as head of the nation? 
Why would Canada resent the proposal to 
elect a President? 

To what extent would this feeling on the part 
of the two nations be justifiable? 

Why did the Koreans tolerate their corrupt 
and inefficient government? 

How near do you think their patriotism ap- 
proaches that of Anglo-Saxon North America? 
In what ways does it most markedly differ? 
Why do the Koreans grieve so greatly over 
the loss of their reactionary king? 

Why do they regret the passing of corrupt 
officials? 

How would you feel if your country were 
garrisoned with foreign troops? 

What is the difference between initiating re- 
forms for yourself and having them dictated 
from without? 

Sum up as vividly as possible the Korean 
sense of national humiliation. 


The Needs of the New Order. 


12.* 


13.* 


What are some of the differences in detail 
between a society founded on custom and one 
founded on the ideal of progress? 

What qualities are demanded for the second 
that are not necessary for the first? 


62 


Ig Ute 


KorEA IN TRANSITION 


14. What are the special dangers in the transition 
from the first to the second of these stand- 
points? 

15. What are the disadvantages of a progressive 
society for a man who is not trained for it? 

16.* What sort of training do you think Korean 
boys should have to fit them — the chang- 
ing conditions ? 

17.* What sort of training should ast have? 

18. What ideals of personal character does Korea 
need most just now? 


The Comfort of Christianity. 


19. Work out the points of resemblance between 
the present Korean political situation and 
that of the Jews in exile. 

20. Select several passages from the Old Testa- 
ment which you think would be of especial 
comfort to Koreans to-day. 

21. In what respect was the political position of 
the early Christian Church like that of Korea 
at present? 

22.* What things has the Christian Church to 
offer that help to supply the loss of nationality ? 

23. Collect the New Testament passages that you 
think would be most helpful in the present 
situation. 

24. What is the message of the Bible on the 
subject of race hatred? 

25.* What would be your counsel to a Korean 
patriot in the present distress? 


THE NatTiIon’s PRESENT SITUATION 63 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY 
CHAPTER II 


I. Recent History. 


Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, chs. VIII-XIV. 

Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, chs. XXI- 
XXIII, XXXI, XXXVI-XXXVII. 

Gale: Korean Sketches, ch. XI. . 


II. Korean Misrule. 


Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. III. 

Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 101, 102, 
320, 446-448. 

Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, p. 57. 


Ill. Character of the King. 


Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. XXVII. 
Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 257, 258, 
433. 


_ THE BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE 


65 


In no department of Korean life is the antiquity of their 
civilization so clearly demonstrated as in the mosaic of 
religious beliefs that are held, not only by different indi- 
viduals, but by any single individual. We have no choice 
but to deal with these separately, but the reader must ever 
bear in mind that in every Korean mind there is a jumble 
of the whole; that there is no antagonism between the dif- 
ferent cults, however they may logically refute each other, 
but that they have all been shaken down together through 
the centuries until they form a sort of religious composite, 
from which each man selects his favorite ingredients without 
ever ignoring the rest. Nor need any man hold exclusively 
to any one phase of this composite religion. In one frame 
of mind he may lean toward the Buddhistic element and at 
another time he may revert to his ancestral fetishism. As 
a general thing, we may say that the all-round Korean will 
be a Confucianist when in society, a Buddhist when he 
philosophizes, and a spirit-worshiper when he is in trouble. 
Now, if you can know what a man’s religion is, you must 
watch him when he is in trouble. Then his genuine religion 
will come out, if he has any. It is for this reason that I con- 
clude that the underlying religion of the Korean, the founda- 
tion upon which all else is mere superstructure, is his original 
spirit-worship. In this term are included animism, shaman- 
ism, fetishism, and nature-worship generally. 


—Homer B. Hulbert 


66 


III 
THE BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE 


Korea seems peculiarly devoid of religion. fe Sea 
There are no great temples in the capital that Lacking 
tower above the common dwellings of men. 
There are no priests evident, no public pray- 
ings, no devotees, no religious fakirs, no sacred 
animals walking about, no bell-books or candles 
sold, no pictures with incense sticks before 
them, no prostrations, in fact no ordinary signs 
of religion, and yet if religion be the reaching 
out of the spiritual in man to other spirits over 
and above him, the Korean too is religious. 
He has his sacred books, he kneels in prayer, 
he talks of God, of the soul, of the heavenly 
country. 

We hear him repeat: “The man who does 
right God rewards with blessing ; the man who 
does wrong God punishes with misery.” “If 
we obey God we live; if we disobey him we 
die.” “Secret whispers among men God hears 
as a clap of thunder; hidden schemes in the 
darkened chamber he sees as a flash of light- 

67 


Religious 
Sayings 


Superstition 
Prevalent 


68 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


ning.” “Let the body die and die and die a 
hundred times, and let all my bones return to 
dust, and let my soul dissipate into nothingness, 
yet not one iota of loyalty shall I change to- 
ward my sovereign lord [the king].” 
Korea’s is a strange religion, a mixing of 
ancestor worship with Buddhism, Taoism, 
spirit cults, divination, magic, geomancy, as- 
trology, and fetishism. Dragons play a part; 
devils (kwi-shin) or nature gods are abundant ; 
tokgabi (elfs, imps, goblins) are legion and 
are up to all sorts of pranks and capers ; spirits 
of dead humanity are here and there present; 
eternal shades walk about; there are personali- 
ties in hills, trees, and rivers, in diseases, under 
the ground and in the upper air, some few 
ministering to mortal needs, but most of them 
malignant in their disposition, bearing wo and 
terror to the sons of men. So easily are they 
offended and so whimsical in their make-up 
and difficult to please, that the spirit world is 
little better than Hades let out of school, with 
all mortals at their mercy. Hornets are hard 
to fight against, as the kings of the Amorites 
found in the days of Joshua; still a sure hand 
may hit a hornet; but who among mortals can 
overcome sprites, wraiths, and banshees, where 


Movinc Drap Bopy THREE YEARS AFTER BURIAL BY ORDER OF 
GEOMANCERS 


ANCESTOR WoRSHIP 


THE BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE 69 


no head ever pops up or other visible appendage 
accompanies ? . 

But is there any religion that possesses the Ancestor 

v Worship Holds 

heart of the nation as a whole, or are the people, chief Place 
as Mrs. Bishop and Percival Lowell lead 
one to infer, without anything of the sort? 
The longer I am in touch with Korean environ- 
ment the more emphatically would I say that 
they have a religion, and that they do much 
more for it, and because of it, than the average 
Christians do at home for their faith. High 
above all other cults and customs stands An- 
cestor Worship. It is the key-stone of Korea’s| 
gateway to the happy lands of prosperity and\ 
success. To neglect it blocks the whole al 
way toward life and hope. A good ancestor 
worshiper may consult the Buddha, may inquire 
of Ok-wang Sang-je (the Jade God of the Tao- 
ists), may bow or expectorate before the or- 
dinary hill-gods, may set up posts to the Five 
Point Generals, and consult luck and divina- 
tion; but to forget the ancestors and to resort 
to these only, would be to pray to the shadow 
without the essence. Ancestor worship pos 
sesses completely the heart and soul of Korea. | 

How does ancestor worship manifest itself, ¥* Outwars 
seeing that there are no temples to remind one, 


The Grave Site 


70 Korea IN TRANSITION 


no altars, no shrines, no priests, no litany said 
or sung? What are its marks or features? We 
answer, the mourner’s dress, the tablet, the 
tablet-house, the grave. As these, and the 
thoughts that accompany them, have occupied 
a very much greater place in the life of Korea 
than the tenets of the Christian faith have ever 
done in any of the Western nations of the 
world, I shall enter somewhat carefully into 
their detail. 

A professional “earth-master” (Chi-sa), 
ground doctor, tomb inspector, or whatever 
you may call him, is summoned by the chief 
of a house and asked to find a grave site for 
the family. He is a father-confessor, but in- 
stead of pointing upward he points down. He 
requires money too, the more the better, if the 
family would be redeemed by his lucky find- 
ings. He seeks out a quiet spur of a hill that 
looks off toward enclosing peaks. There must 
be no oozy waters, no noisy people, no nerve- 
wearing winds, but the gentle breeze, the quiet 
of the hills, and the full blessing of the sun- 
shine. He sets his compass and then takes aim 
from the different lines that radiate from the 
center, to see what hill peaks show up, on the 
right, or left, or in front. Lucky the site that 


Masxkep Heroes AT A FUNERAL TO CHASE AWAY Evit SPIRITS 


THE BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE 71 


finds one along the compass line of posterity, 
for the family will then go on generation after 
generation; on the line of education, for then 
the house will be great as to scholars; along 
the line of rank, that many may be official 
kings; along the line of goods and chattels, so 
that every man may. be wealthy. This is the 
heaven aimed at by the professor with his com- 
pass. When once found and proved satisfac- 
tory, he is paid off, and the grave is dug and 
plastered with lime, sand, and mud, and 
covered over ready for the departure of the 
father or mother or both. 

When they die, wailing goes on for a time, 
not gentle or smothered sobs, but open-mouthed 
howlings. In four days the members of the 
family are dressed in sackcloth, with ropes tied 
about the waist and head. All colors are set 
aside, as color denotes pleasure, joy, delight. 
The house is unswept and desolation reigns 
supreme, with wailings and self-denunciation. 
Envelope this in an atmosphere tainted by the 
presence of the dead, and you have a Korean 
demise and the accompaniments just as they 
ought to be. The mourner wears string shoes, 
never leather, for leather denotes ease and com- 
fort; he eats no meat, holds no office, goes 


The Mourner 


The Funeral 


The Soul 


Sacrifice 


72 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


about with an umbrella hat on that hides the 
face of the sky from his guilty gaze. “Because 
of my transgressions my parents have died,” 
says he, and when he writes a letter he signs 
it, “Yours truly, J. W. Kim, Sinner.” 

The corpse is dressed in finest silk, wrapped 
in hemp cloth, and then tied with three, some- 
times four strips, the slit ends being fastened 
tightly round the body, which is then put into 
the coffin and covered.. Books and articles 
specially prized by the deceased are often put 
in as well, and after a few days or months, as 
the case may be, the funeral goes out at night 
with lanterns burning and wailings of “Aigo! 
aigo!’”’ Into such a discordant world as this 
come the words, “For if we believe that Jesus 
died and rose again, even so them also that are 
fallen asleep in Jesus will God bring with him.” 

Each human being is supposed to possess two 
souls, one a male soul (on), and one a female 
(pak). Naturally the male soul goes to heaven 
and the female to hell, while the body sleeps in 
the ancestral grave. There is no word of 
resurrection, for resurrection is over and above 
and outside of all the Confucian calculations. 

Sacrifice on the part of a Confucianist equals 
going to church, praying, entering the Sunday- 


le i i i te 


THE BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE 73 


school class, joining in singing. To be the 
head of a clan is more than to be a minister 
or Sunday-school superintendent. For three 
years, on the first and fifteenth of each month, 
the head of the home offers rice, bread, beef, 
Irish stew, greens, dates, chestnuts, walnuts, 
persimmons, honey cakes, oil candy, and other 
articles of food before the tablet which remains 
in the room. The male soul comes down from 
heaven on these occasions and inhales the fra- 
grance and then goes back. The poor female 
soul has no part therein. Wailing continues 
for three months, and then the silent sacrifice 
takes its place. It is observed each time at 
midnight, or just before cockcrow. When the 
tablet has been worshiped for three years, it 
is put into the tablet-house, and mourning is 
finished. Only three generations occupy the 
tablet-house at one and the same time. When 
a new spirit comes in, the tablet belonging to 
the great-grandfather is taken out and buried. 
On four or five special days of the year, sac- 
rifice is offered early in the morning at the 
grave, which becomes far more important than 
the home of the living. A neighbor may en- 
croach on the precincts of the living, and noth- 
ing result but a very noisy seance; but to 


Requirements 
Respecting the 
Grave 


The Most 
Desperate 
Trouble 


74 KoreEA IN TRANSITION 


invade the enclosure of the dead calls for the 
strongest arm of the law, the long paddle, the 
knife, the deadly potion, the fierce feud that 
goes on forever. The grave is cared for, 
watched and tended, combed and brushed, for 
the repose of the dead is all-important. If they 
be misplaced, the opposites of health, wealth, 
and happiness come to pass. A poor thin-faced 
consumptive came to the writer to have him 
help him move his mother’s grave. “Where 
she lay was oozy with water, and I caught 
consumption,” said he. “If I could but move 
her I’d get well.” Poor lad, his hopes of life 
were centered in the situation of his mother’s 
remains ! . 

Let a thief at home kidnap a child and write 
the distracted parents, saying, “I have Nelly in 
my keeping; when you bring $500 to Smith’s 
Corners at 1.00 A.M. and hand it over, you may 
have her back,” and it would set the whole 
village by the ears. But suppose Pak the out- 
law write to Min the millionaire, saying, “I’ve 
dug up your father’s bones, and have them 
with me. If you send $5,000 at midnight to 
Long Valley Stream you may have them. If 
not sent by next full moon, be warned, Pll 
grind your ancestors’ bones to powder.” In 


Tue BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE 75 


this case, the extreme limits of desperation 
would be reached. 

If one were to sum up the good and evil of 
the system, we might say that it is good in that 
it teaches children to reverence parents. There 
are no restive feelings on the part of a Korean 
son against his father’s authority, for such a 
thing would be equivalent to rebellion against 
God. There is something noble and exalted 
in the choice of one’s parents as divinities in 
default of a revelation from God. Surely 
highest on earth come the father and mother, 
higher than the hero of the Shintoist, higher 
than any intermediate beings whatever. 

The destructive influence of ancestor wor- 
ship, however, far outweighs its benefits. It 
is a ruthless and voracious land-grabber; the 
best of the hills are for the dead. The living 
may go to Jericho, or may huddle together 
down in the malarial flats, while the ancestral 
shade rests in the high places on the hill. The 
exhilarating surroundings of trees and green 
sod are for the dead, the living are left to the 
dust and heat and smells of the market-place. 

Ancestral piety forbids the digging of the 
hills for gold or silver or any other treasure. 
What are the living and what is yellow gold 


The Good in 
the System 


Its Destructive 
Influence 


Prevents Mining 


Impels to 
Early Marriages 


Forbids Travel 


Causes the 
Spread of 
Disease 


76 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


compared with the sweet repose of my father’s 
ghost? Away with all sordid visions and leave 
the hills in peace! 

Ancestor worship impels toward early mar- 
riages in its hurriedly reaching out after a new 
generation that will offer sacrifice to one’s de- 
parted shade. Children are married off at ten 
years and sometimes less. Love marriages? 
What has love to do with it? There result, 
therefore, unhappy homes, concubinage, irre- 
sponsible parents, a score of families all hud- 
dled together in two or three little rooms, 
stupidity and misery untold. 

The system forbids travel. in this widely 
journeying age. If you area good child, home. 
you must come for sacrifice; no world-enter- 
prise can interfere, a certain room, a certain 
plot of ground, a certain day, holds you fast 
prisoner. Some filial sons build a little shed 
out by the grave, and unwashed and uncombed 
take up their abode and exist there. 

The uncleanness that goes with ancestor 
worship, the lack of bathing, the keeping of the 
dead remains long in the home, all minister to 
the spread of disease and to the promotion of 
epidemics which have worn down Korea since 
time immemorial. 


THE BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE TF 


Its extinction of woman is one of its most 
pernicious influences. She cannot sacrifice, she 
cannot carry down the family line. When she 
enters the world, disappointment announces 
her arrival, unless sons galore have preceded 
her. Her life is a life of submission, imprison- 
ment, and burden-bearing. Her final destina- 
tion is Chi-ha or Whang-chun, the Yellow Hell. 

The end of all sacrifice is a people bound 
hand and foot, interfered with in office, hin- 
dered in travel, debarred from the use of the 
land that God gave them, impoverished and 
made unhappy by early marriages, walking, 
with gaze backward, more and more hopelessly 
into inextricable confusion, all in conflict with 
the age we live in. The twentieth century has 
no regard for ancestor worship, or ancestral 
hills, through which it goes on the railway 
train, around them, in front of them, cutting 
off luck and prosperity, screaming its wild note 
in the most sacred valleys, roaring like wild 
wheel-devils let loose. ‘ 

Even if there were no Christianity to take 
its place ancestor worship must go. Out of 
the backs of the “blue-dragon” and “white- 
tiger”? come long lines of cars loaded with ore 


1Spirits supposed to reside in the hills. 


Depresses 
Woman 


It Must Be 
Discarded 


Cannot Stand 
against the 
Modern Spirit 


Course of the 
Missionary in 
Meeting It 


78 Korea IN TRANSITION 


that is fed into the mining stamps to be bitten 
and chewed and pulverized, till all the metal is 
extracted. The age rolling forward, as it is 
inexorably, is smoothing out all old supersti- 
tions and with them ancestor worship. 
Confronting the young missionary, in his 
ignorance, is the stupendous question of the 
ancestor, rooted deep in the generations that 
lie buried, and with its tentacles all about the 
living, associated with the wisest of the Orient, 
and backed up by the master (Confucius) him- 
self and the sages. What can the young and 
often callow missionary do to meet this? Can 
he argue the point? Never. Can he speak of 
it at all with any effect? No. What can he 
do? Do as the negro did when he saw the 
black dog waiting guard at the gate, his jaw 
“big” and his eye “mighty dangersome”. What 
did he do? He let him alone. Let it alone. 
Know all about it, but don’t touch it. There 
is no need. Ancestor worship is dropped off 
by the spiritually alive, as the beggar drops off 
his old garments to become a prince imperial. 
As mentioned before, the Korean talks of 
God. He is Hananim, the one Great One. His 
name in Chinese and also in Korean is made up 
of terms meaning “one” and “great.” So he 


THE BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE 79 


is the Supreme Ruler for whom there is no 
image or likeness in heaven or earth or under 
the earth. Greatness is his. Love and light 
and life and joy are not associated with him. 
I said to the old woman (not a Christian) 
dusting off the door-steps, “It will rain to- 
day.” Her reply was “Rain? Who knows?” 
“But the morning paper says so under weather 
probabilities.” “Morning paper? Dear me! 
What does the morning paper know about 
what Hananim will do?” 

Immediately when the Bible is read, “In the 
beginning some One created the heavens and 
the earth”, they answer, “Hananim.” “Who 
is angry with the wicked every day?” “God.” 
“The heavens declare the glory of Hananim; 
and the firmament showeth his handiwork.” 
But to tell of Hananim coming down to this 
poor earth’s manger, and living, suffering, 
dying, with the outcast and the lost, is a story, 
for the East, unreasonable, impossible, and yet 
a story that grips the heart and compels belief 
and acceptance. 

Koreans consult the Buddha sometimes. 
Buddhism has been here since 372 A. D. and 
its long course of history has been marked by 
various degrees of corruption and by dark 


His Revelation 


Buddhism 


80 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


deeds. In delightfully secluded corners and in 
the shade and quiet of the hills are its temples. 
So separated are they from the wicked world 
and so shut away into the silent lands of medi- 
tation and repose, that you would think them 
the habitation of the holy, but it proves not to 
be so. The phrase Na-mu A-mi-ta-bul is the 
chief article of their creed, and their chief 
forms observed are celibacy, vegetarianism, — 
and the non-taking of life. The Buddhist has 
always been careful to have a shaved head in 
a land of topknots and his bowing and manner 
of speech differ from the ordinary “worldling”’ 
(sok-in) as he calls him. 

Varying The fall of the Koryu dynasty in 1391 A. D. 

Recognition A 
was supposed to be due to the corrupt influence 
of Buddhism, and since then the state has 
looked down upon it as an outcast religion. 
No Buddhist priest was admitted within the 
walls of Seoul for 500 years, and even to-day 
the Confucianist uses the lowest and most dis- 
respectful forms of speech to the Buddhist 
wherever he meets him. Yet in times of 
trouble, as when no son is born heir of the 
family, or when worries or anxieties beset the 
Palace, there come calls on the Buddha, and re- 
quests that his priests pray. Many a time have 


Tue BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE 81 


these seasons of prayer kept the writer awake 
at night—“O cha-ri chu-ri chun-je sa-pa-ha. 
Om man-hi pad-mi hum, om man-hi pad-mi 
hum.” ‘The priest knows not the meaning of 
what he says. They are set sounds that have 
passed down to him as propitious and lucky, 
and like a pent-up and bottled cask, once start 
the flow and he goes on with the most astound- 
ing rapidity seemingly forever and forever. 

What shall we say in commendation of 
Korea’s form of Buddhism? Perhaps it is that 
Sakyamuni has taught a lesson in tenderness 
and compassion. There is a gentleness in some 
of the old priests and a dreamy mystic some- 
thing that inspires one to go softly, and to put 
all iron and hardness out of the soul. But 
Buddhism, with its gilded idols and its awful 
representation of the Ten Hells that await mor- 
tals and its unintelligible litany and its immoral 
priesthood, constitutes but a poor portal for 
the soul of man. 


Influence and 
Value 


Of Taoism there is almost nothing. Some{7#s™ 


few followers read the Old Philosopher. “The 
way that can be walked on is not the eternal 
way, the name that can be named is not the 
eternal name.” Some in the spirit of this 
sect pray the long night through to find God, 


Shamanism 


82 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


to get into touch with divinity. Our dear 
brother, S. J. Keel, was once a Taoist. Chang-ja 
one of the sages of this religion says: “The 
number one man is unconscious of his body, 
the spiritual man knows nothing of merit, the 
holy man thinks not of his name.” Here is a 
verse of his, the opening poem in his book of 
writings. It pictures the greatness of the 
great as compared with the mediocrity of the 
mediocre who are looking on. 
“There is a fish in the Great North Sea 
Whose name is Kon; 
His size is a bit unknown to me, 
Though he measures a good ten thousand i 
Till his wings are grown, 
And then he’s a bird of enormous sail, 
With an endless back and a ten-mile tail, 


. And he covers the heavens with one great veil, 
When he flies off home.” 


A strange, dreamy, elfish, Rip Van Winkle 
kind of doctrine is Taoism. Some scholars in 
China think they find in its teaching a relation 
to the Hebrew Bible and intimation of the 
Trinity, but Koreans see no such resemblance, 
and it is a dead cult as far as the peninsula is 
concerned. 

It must not be supposed, however, that an- 
cestor worship occupies the whole spiritual 


THE BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE 83 


realm of Korea. It is the great religion of th 
people ; it is the essential belief of the orthodox, 


the all-necessary form to observe and follow, 


if one would be admitted to the society of the 
holy. You are required to be an ancestor wor-! 
shiper, but you are not required to be a i ein 
medium, or an exorcist, or a believer in hill) 
gods, or dragons, or divination, or star influ- 
ences. Nevertheless the whole land is shad- 
owed by these as was Egypt by the swarms of| 
locusts which came up to strip her. Mrs. Bishop 
says demon-worship costs Korea one million 
two hundred and fifty thousand dollars gold 
per annum. 

A graphic and correct picture of spirit exist- 
ences in Korea is touched off by the pen of 
Dr. George Heber Jones: “In Korean belief, 
earth, air, and sea are peopled by demons. 
They haunt every umbrageous tree, shady ra- 
vine, crystal spring, and mountain crest. On 
green hill-slopes, in peaceful agricultural val- 
leys, in grassy dells, on wooded uplands, by 
lake and stream, by road and river, in north, 
south, east, and west, they abound, making 
malignant sport out of human destinies. They 
are on the roof, ceiling, fireplace, kang, and 


1 Korea and Her Neighbors, 403. 


Belief in 
Demons 


Revengeful 
Spirits 


84 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


beam. They fill the chimney, the shed, the 
living-room, the kitchen, they are on every 
shelf and jar. In thousands they waylay the 
traveler as he leaves home, beside him, behind 
him, dancing in front of him, whirring over 
his head, crying out upon him from earth and 
air and water. They are numbered by thou- 
sands of billions, and it has been well said that 
their ubiquity is an unholy travesty of the Di- 
vine omnipresence. This belief keeps the 
Korean in a perpetual state of nervous appre- 
hension, it surrounds him with indefinite ter- 
rors, and it may truly be said of him that he 
passes the time of his sojourning here in fear. 
Every Korean home is subject to demons, here, 
there, and everywhere. They touch the Korean 
at every point in his life, making his well-being 
depend on a series of acts of propitiation, and 
they avenge every omission with merciless se- 
verity, keeping him under the yoke of bondage 
from birth to death.” 

The spirits of the dead who have passed 
from earth under some wrong or other, keep 
after the living till'their wrongs are avenged a 
thousandfold. Many of them have not found 
a resting-place, neither in beast nor man, and 
so remain at large, more dangerous by far to 


THE BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE 85 


meet than even a striped man-eater. Terrors 
untold accompany these vindictive spirits, who 
are loose and on the warpath. Sickness, mad- 
ness, poverty, disgrace, death, mark their 
course. In each county there is a sacrificial 
place set apart called yo-dan, where all the dis- 
contented, displeased, distracted spirits are 
wont to congregate and be sacrificed to. It is 
a dangerous business, for any slip in the cere- 
mony brings down the pack on the head of the 
director of ceremonies. Again they are heard 
crying at night ; sometimes they become visible, 
but usually they are hid from mortal view. 
Some are big and some are little. Some guard 
a whole village and have to be propitiated or 
else they smite it with typhus and the like. 
Some possess the hills and keep bit and bridle 
on the tiger. If these hill gods be neglected 
or insulted, they let loose their woes on the 
market-place and we hear of children being 
carried off and eaten or bitten by snakes, or 
other mischances befalling them. There are 
hill “bosses” or village “bosses” who are in 
touch with the pit itself, and can call forth 
legions on their own behalf. 
Pan-su, or blind exorcists, ply their trade or />*°™*** 

casting out demons. They possess themselves 


Tokgabi 


Demon Posts 


86 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


of some great name, like that of George Wash- 
ington, for example, and by its repetition and 
the telling over of his sayings, out go the 
devils. Then there are women called Mu-tang, 
mediums who yield themselves up to some 
demon or other, and then utter prophetic 
words, or words that reveal mysteries. 

The tokgabi is half-demon and half-elf, al- 
ways on the go, and up to all sorts of capers. 
He will frequently cut off a Korean’s topknot 
when he is not looking, or walking peacefully 
all unawares. The man is unconscious of it 
till he feels the top of his head and says, “Hello, 
who is it? Is it lor a Buddhist? Not a Bud- 
dhist? No, then I. Alack, the tokgabi has been 
here and my topknot is gone.” They push 
covers inside of dishes, they throw sand against 
the window-paper, they play with fire at night 
out on the mountainsides. 

Here, there, and everywhere in Korea are 
posts seen by the wayside, cut roughly with 
grinning teeth, horrible face, and most fero- 
cious eyes and ears. They are placed there to 
keep deviis from passing. Usually they are 
called by the name of General, General this, 
and General that. Frequently they stand in 
pairs, side by side, or facing each other, one 


Roya Tome AND GUARDIANS 


Spirit Posts 


THE BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE 87 


the General and the other the General’s wife. 
Down his front runs the inscription, “The Gen- 
eral of Heaven,” while down the front of his 
wife it says, “Mrs. General of Hell.’’ These 
were the strong defense of Korea’s poor people 
through the generations gone by against the 
countless forces of the unseen world. 

The dragon is king of all scaled and crawl- The Pregon 
ing creatures. He mounts high up to heaven, 
as when we see a waterspout ; he goes down to 
the unfathomed depths of the deepest pool. He 
is a monster divinity, is the dragon. He exists 
under the hills, where his back is often pro- 
tected by a pavement of stone, where the road 
is likely to cut into the quick. St. George 
may have slain him in England, but he flour- 
ishes in the Orient still. On Japanese coins is 
seen his clawy form twisted and mixed with 
many coils. On the Chinese flag he still breasts 
the breezes. In the most honored of Korean 
sacred books, The Canon of Changes, I read 
such a sentence as this: “The sixth line shows 
dragons fighting in the wild, their blood is 
purple and yellow.” Yong, the dragon name, 
is in all mouths, from the king on the throne 
to the maid servant that is behind the mill. 

Enough has been told to give the reader an 4 World of Fear 


Collective Spirit 
Host 


Gospel Picture 
of Christ's 
Power 


88 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


idea of the terrible world in which the Korean 
has lived and lives. Every moment of his pil- 
grimage has been under the dominion of fear. 
As was said before, he becomes a fatalist natu- 
rally, what comes to pass must come. His 
birth-year, birth-month, birthday, birth-hour, 
are in possession of the spirits, and they hold 
them at their mercy, to toss about or worry as 
the tiger does the unfortunate village dog that 
has been caught napping. 

Gather this world together as it has passed 
the reader in review, and there will be the 
ancestral spirits, mean enough and whimsical 
beyond all reason, sufficient to make life a pil- 
grimage of awful suspense; but add to them 
demons, goblins, elfs, dragons, hill-gods, and 
what not and you have old Korea. 

Into this world comes the missionary sith 
his Book and its stories about demons. The 
Korean reads and at once is attracted. Plenty 
of demons in the New Testament, thousands of 
them, but they are all on the run; down the 
slopes of Galilee they go'; away from Christ’s 
presence they fly, till the blind sees and the soul 
is lighted up?; hosts of them, howling devils? ; 
and devils that shriek and foam at the mouth.* 
2 Matt. viii. 32. 2Matt. xii. 22, %Markv.135. 4 Luke ix. 39. 


Tue BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE 89 


Never before in the history of Korea was 
the world of demons seen smitten hip and 
thigh. This Wonder-worker is omnipotent, for 
verily he has issued a reprieve to all prisoners, 
all who will accept of him, and has let them 
out of hell. Throughout the land prayers go 
up for the demon-possessed in his name, and 
they are delivered; prayers for healing, and 
the sick are cured; prayers for the poor, and 
God sends means. 

Was there ever a land more needy, and 
where was a message ever dreamed of so mirac- 
ulously suited to the need? Some of us have 
come East to learn how wondrously Jesus can 
set free the most hopeless of lost humanity. We 
have come to realize that there are demons in- 
deed in this world, and that Jesus can cast them 
out; to learn once more that the Bible is true, 
and that God is back of it; to know that his 
purpose is to save Asia, and to do an important 
part of the work through young Americans, 
Canadians, Britons, and others, who will 
humbly bow before him and say, “Lord, here 
am I; send me.” 


His 
Omnipotence in 
Korea 


Message Suited 
to the Land 


go 


KoreEA IN TRANSITION 


SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER III 


Atm: To APPRECIATE THE INSUFFICIENCY OF KorEA’s 
RELIGION To Meet THE NEw NEEpDS 


I. The Good and Evil of Ancestor Worship. 


II, 


TH 


2.* 


6.* 


7.* 


Name all the good points that you can find 
in ancestor worship. 

Should an effort be made to incorporate any 
of these points in Korean Christianity? If 
so, how? 

What effect would it have upon real rever- 
ence for the dead to imagine that the position 
of a grave might bring disease to the living? 
To what extent should reverence for the dead 
be allowed to interfere with business and 
travel, and to what extent not? 

What recommendation or criticism have you 
for the relations of parents to children in 
Korea? 

In what ways does ancestral worship affect 
the position of woman in society? 

Do you think that missionaries are justified 
in refraining from all attacks upon ancestor 
worship? Defend your views. 


The Mental and Moral Confusion of Superstition. 


$.* 


Io. 


Try to think out in detail what practical dif- 
ference it would make in your life if you 
really believed in the existence of imps and 
spirits. 

What possible defense would you have if evil 
spirits attacked you? 

What effect would a belief in spirits have 


DE. 


Il. 
12. 


13. 


14. 


15.* 


THE BELIEFS OF THE PEOPLE gI 


upon a man’s resoluteness in confronting 
difficulties ? 

What effect would it have upon plans for the 
future? 

In what way does this belief stand as an ob- 
stacle to science? 

What evils arise from attributing every mis- 
fortune to the arbitrary displeasure of some 
spirit ? : 

What do you think would be the relative value 
of the scientific and religious method in com- 
bating the belief in spirits? 

Sketch the line of argument that you would 
employ in dealing with believers in evil 
spirits. 


The Message of Christianity. 


16. 
iva 
18. 


19. 


21.* 


How would you utilize the Korean idea of 
Hananim in teaching Christianity? 

Where would you expect to find your greatest 
difficulty in using this idea? 

Contrast the message of Buddhism and Chris- 
tianity for a nation in political distress. 
Contrast the external and public manifesta- 
tions of Protestant Christianity with those of 
religion in Korea. What elements are most 
peculiar to each? 

What principal needs of Korea in the way of 
institutional and social life will Christianity 
supply? 

How will Christianity remove the evil and 
supplement the good of Korean life? 


II. 


KorEA IN TRANSITION 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY- 
CHAPTER IilI 


. Ancestor Worship. 


Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, ch. VI. 
Gale: Korean Sketches, pp. 215, 216. 
Underwood: The Call of Korea, pp. 79-81. 
Noble: Ewa: A Tale of Korea, pp. 57-60. 


Spirit Worship. 
Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. XXX. 


Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 200, 390- 
426, 443, 444. 

Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, ch, VIII. 

Underwood: The Call of Korea, pp. 85-94. 

Noble: Ewa: A Tale of Korea, pp. 49-53. 


Woman's rights are few and depend on custom rather 
than law. She now possesses the nght of remarriage, and 
that of remaining unmarried till she is sixteen, and she 
can refuse permission to her husband for his concubines to 
occupy the same house with herself. She is powerless to 
divorce her husband, conjugal feel ye typified by the goose, 
the symbolic figure at a wedding, being a feminine virtue 
solely. Her husband ged cast her off for seven reasons— 
incurable disease, theft, childlessness, infidelity, jealousy, in- 
compatibility with her parents-in-law, and a qu some 
disposition. She may be sent back to her father’s house for 
any one of these causes. . . . Domestic happiness is a thing 
she does not look for. The Korean has a house, but no home. 
The husband has his life apart; common ties of friendship 
and external interest are not known. His pleasure is taken 
in company with male acquaintances and gesang; and the 
marriage relationship is briefly summarized in the remark 
of a Korean gentleman in conversation with me on the sub- 
ject, ‘‘We marry our wives, but we love our concubines.” 


—Isabella Bird Bishop 


“Before Christ came into our home,” said one of our native 
Christian women, “I never knew what it was to eat a meal 
in the same room with my husband. His meals were served 
to him in the sarang (reception room), while I had mine on 
the earth floor of the kitchen. He always spoke to me in the 
lowest grade of servant talk and often called me Py insulting 
names. Sometimes when he was an or drunk, he used to 
beat me, and my life was as miserable as that of most all the 
heathen Korean women. But now that Christ has come 
into our hearts, everything is changed. My husband has not 
struck me once since he became a Christian. We have our 
meals and prayers together in the sarang, and now he always 
speaks kindly to me, addressing me as an equal. The past 
life was a bad dream; the present is a foretaste of heaven. 
We did not know what love was until Christ came into our 


home to teach us.” 
—George Heber Fones 


94 


IV 
SOCIAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS 


Society has rested on five strong pillars, 
called Oh-ryun. They were chiseled out of 
ancient marble, by unknown hands, in prehis- 
toric times, and have stood high through all 
the ages, holding the four corners of the East- 
ern world, and propping up the middle beams 
thereof. The Five Laws they are sometimes 
called, and on them rests the world of Con- 
fucius. Recently a Mr. Yi Wung-geung, a 
Christian, and one of Korea’s most noted 
scholars, has written a reader for girls, and in 
the opening chapter he begins: “The doctrine 
of men rests on the Five Laws. Between father 
and son it requires chin (friendship) ; between 
king and courtier, eui (righteousness) ; be- 
tween husband and wife, pyul (deference) ; 
between old and young, saw (degree) ; between 
friends, shin (faith).” 

Allied to these are the Five Virtues, in, eui, 
ye, cht, shin, or love, righteousness, ceremony, 
knowledge, faith. Herein the whole of su- 

95 


The Of-ryun, or 
Five Laws 


The Five Virtues 


The Five 
Blements 


A Faithful Son 


g6 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


perior teaching was summed up, and concern- 
ing these millions of pages have been written, 
and armies of Chinese characters have been 
called into requisition.to tell all that was to be 
told. In-ewi-ye-chi-shin is pronounced as one 
word, and all the people use it. The coolie as 
well as the statesman or gifted man of letters 
says, “In-eut-ye-chi-shin’’. Any nation exem- 
plifying it is civilized and any failing to ob- 
serve it is barbarous. 

Another five must be called in, and then we 
shall have the fifteen that round out the circle. 
These are the Original Elements, metal, wood, 
water, fire, earth, keum-mok-su-wha-do, also a 
single word in its frequency of use and wide- 
ness of application. These are called the Oh- 
hang, and what is there that cannot be ex- 
plained by them? The Oh-ryun (Five Laws), 
the Oh-sang (Five Virtues), and the Oh-hang 
(Five Elements) govern the Korean world of 
thought. The Five Elements serve as founda- 
tion, the Five Laws as the pillars, and the Five 
Virtues as the firmament above. 

These might be designated the soul of 
Korean society. How many stories are told 
to illustrate the Five Laws! For example, 
such and such a lad was good to his feeble 


SoctaL LirE AND CusToMs 97 


mother, and faithful in bowing before his 
father’s grave. He was dogged by every cir- 
cumstance of evil; poverty was after him with 
hungry eyes ; winter was upon him, biting cold ; 
sickness and ill luck tried him to the bitter 
end; but through it all he cared for the needy 
one, and walked daily through the snow to the 
mound on the hillside. As a reward for such 
virtue, an angel appeared to him, crowned him 
with high honor, and pronounced wealth and 
happiness his forever. He married a beautiful 
princess, had untold riches and many sons, and 
was happy ever afterward. 

A set of five readers prepared some hundred 
years ago, abound in such stories. Undoubt- 
edly a strong steadying influence has been exer- 
cised on the state and on society by the observ- 
ance of the Oh-ryun, so that courtiers have 
been loyal, children filial, wives faithful, age 
honored, and friendship sacred. 

To illustrate the Five Virtues, love, right- 
eousness, ceremony, knowledge, faith, let 
one story suffice, written by a governor of 
north Korea, one hundred and fifty years 
ago. “In the late autumn a peasant caught 
two wild geese, clipped their wings, and gave 
them to me. I kept them inthe court, where 


Inftuence of the 
Five Laws 


Wild Geese 
Illustrating the 
Classic Virtues 


98 Korea IN TRANSITION 


the steward looked after them. One day 
he came to me and said, ‘These birds are 
better-flavored than quail or pheasant; I 
advise your excellency to kill and eat.’ ‘Kill 
and eat? Out on you, man,’ said I, ‘Have you - 
never noticed wild geese, how they fly, for ex- 
ample? They preserve the strictest ye (cere-- 
mony, order); when they mate there is no 
disorder or impropriety, they understand eui 
(what is right) ; in their migrations they fol- 
low the warmth of the sun, they have chi (wis- 
dom) ; though they come and go you can al- 
ways count on their passing at the right time, 
that is shin (keeping faith) ; they never make 
war on other creatures with bill or claw, that 
borders on in (love). It is a bird of the sacred 
classics, and would never do to make soup of 
like chicken or quail.’ ” 

2 geisha As to the Oh-hang—metal, wood, water, 
fire, earth—they play a most important part in 
all the affairs of life. They underlie every- 
thing, are the foundation in fact, not only of 
material things, but of domestic life and spirit- 
ual existence as well. In the case of a marriage 
they are anxiously called in, shuffled, and con-- 
sulted. If a young man whose element is 
wood is mated to a metal girl, he will suffer 


Soctat LirE anp Customs 99 


as wood does from ax and saw and chisel. 
If he be married to a fire girl, nothing but 
total destruction awaits him. Earth and water 
are the only safe elements with which wood can 
mate. All the domestic unhappiness of olden 
time was explained on the principle of the Five 
Elements and bad mating. To say that the 
Oh-hang enters into every detail of life is 
scarcely putting it too strongly. 

Society, based on, built up, and covered by 
these sets of laws, got itself into a fixed and 
immovable condition. The compass of the 
law governing was so small, and the conditions 
enclosed so multifarious, that no independent 
move could be taken by any one member of 
society without disturbing all of the others. 
“As it was, is now, and ever shall be,” was 
written large over all things Korean; every 
wheel in the brain was stopped except those 
moved by Oh-hang, or Oh-ryun, or Oh-sang. 
Independent thought was not dreamed of. 
Korea has scored no invention, no discovery, no 
advance, in a thousand years. ‘Backward, ever 
backward the nation has gone, little by little, 
in its unconscious existence, saying over and 
over to itself: ‘‘As it was, is now, and ever 
shall be; as it was, is now, and ever shall be.” 


A Fixed Soeiai 
Condition 


100 KoreEA IN TRANSITION 


Whether in architecture, or in education, or 
in dress, or in other affairs of life, custom rules. 
Custom explains everything. 

“What about this ane: on 

“Oh, it’s custom.” 

“Yes, but see here, why are the dead pert 
up on sticks and not buried ?” 

“Oh, it’s custom.” 

“Do you sometimes marry off children as 
early as nine years of age?” 

“Yes, that’s custom.” 

The reader must learn this word if he would 
understand old Korea, and if he would read 
into much of the life of the East still. The 
forefather may have been an imbecile, or may 
have walked in his sleep, but what he did has 
come down, down to the present, and custom 
maintains that it is the sane and right thing 
to do. 

“Why do you feed all these idle tramps, who 
come calling at your door, and you a poor 
man?” I once asked of my host. 

He replied “It’s custom, and for my life I 
can’t get out of it.” 

“What about these dolmens set up all 
through these valleys here like tables of the 
gods, what do they mean?” 


SoctaL Lire anD CUSTOMS IOI 


“They were set up by the Chinese invader, 
thousands of years ago, to crush out the ground 
influence that brought forth Korean warriors.” 

“You mean that they have stifled out the life 
of the nation for all these centuries?” 

esi?" 

“Then why don’t you roll them off and get 
back your lost vigor?” 

“Oh, that’s no use now, never do.” 

“As it was, is now, and ever shall be,” is 
the only reply. 

In Korea the most distressing condition of 
all was this strangling of independent thought. 
There was ceremony, gentleness, deference, 
kindness, appreciation of fun and humor, but 
for comparison and conclusion and action there 
was no room. One longed to drill a hole into 
the brain, pour in oil or anything that would 
lubricate, and set the wheels moving. They 
are moving now, however, and some of them 
with fine freedom. An Edison may little by 
little come forth from the shadows and be 
born, but for three thousand years it was as 
impossible to bring forth such as he as for a 
scrub pine to grow glorious persimmons. 

We shall look for a moment at the home 
life, ever remembering these bands of iron and 


A Stifled Worid_ 


The Head of the 
Family 


102 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


brass. The father is the lord high executioner. 
The Oh-ryun says that he shall be revered al- 
most as a god by his posterity. He is greater 
even than the king. What he says is law, and 
what he does must be acknowledged respect- 
fully and agreed to. While the majority of 
Korean fathers are kind to their children, cus- 
tom paints him a Nebuchadnezzar with a fiery 
furnace prepared for other members of the 
household. He talks in terms of command to 
all others about him, as we might say in Eng- 
lish, “Come here. Go there. Sit down. Stand 
up. Bring my pipe.” The Korean language 
is rich in tones and expressions of high com- 
mand, and the father is a past master of the 
whole subject. When you live near him, watch 
his daily life, and catch the accents of his voice, 
you think of Sitting Bull, the Turkish Sultan, 
the Grand Vizier, the Czar, and yet none of 
these seem quite to describe him. 

He says, ‘‘There’s John now, he’s three 
months old; I must look sharp and get him 
betrothed.” He calls in a go-between and after 
various seesawings, consulting of Oh-hang, and 
casting of lots, John is betrothed, sometimes 
to a girl baby, sometimes to one already six 
or seven years old. John is not interested. He 


SoctaL Lire anD CusToMs 103 


sleeps hard on the matting and awaits his fate. 
Mary is married off likewise. Years later, 
when the wedding-day comes, neither one nor 
other thinks of entering a protest or of saying, 
“Why was I not consulted?” John grows up 
to be just the same as his father, gives his 
commands like a sea-captain from the bridge, 
and settles his son before his mother knows 
what he looks like. Thus are the children 
dealt with. 
__ As for the wife, when time wears on her and 
her cheek grows wan and faded, her lord high 
executioner calls in another woman to share 
the fortunes of the home. The wife bows in 
humble submission, and uses high and respect- 
ful language in acknowledging this new order 
of affairs. No wonder girls in Korea are sorry 
to be born a member of their sex, and every 
boy walks in high hopes of his innings coming 
later. 

The woman’s place is, first as daughter, one 
of contempt. A missionary’s little six-year-old 
once came to him with tears in her eyes and 
said: | 

“Papa, I have a question.” 

“Yes, what is it?” 

“Are you sorry that I wasn’t a boy?” 


The Wife 


How Daughters 
Are Viewed 


At the Period of 
Marriage 


The Mother 


104 KOREA IN TRANSITION 


“Well I should say not, I wouldn’t trade you 
for a dozen boys. But why do you ask?” 

She said, “The Koreans were talking just 
now, and they pointed at me and said, ‘What a 
pity that she wasn’t a boy!” 

The Korean woman is married at last, but 
not with any high hilarity such as attends wed- 
ding-days at home. She goes with blood-red 
marks painted on her face, and her eyes sealed, 
like a wooden doll, turned this way and that, 
stood up, set down, moved here and there, 
pulled and pushed through all the wooden cere- 
mony of marriage, till at last she emerges 
daughter-in-law, with three powers set over 
her head, husband, mother-in-law, and father- 
in-law. Young wives are not always unhappy, 
but it is no thanks to custom or circumstance 
that they are not. 

The mother is an important member of the 
family in her relation to children only. If 
she has no son, alas for her! better had she 
never been born. Not only is she condemned . 
by her husband and every member of the clan, 
but she condemns herself, and no ray of sun- 
shine ever gladdens her broken soul. She is 
Rachel, and Hannah, and Elizabeth, as they 
were before joy visited them. In this matter 


Groom RETURNING WITH His Brive 


BrIDAL FEAST AFTER THE CEREMONY 


Soctat Lire anp Customs 105 


the spirit of the opposite seems to rule from 
that of the West. Happy the woman who has 
a great circle of posterity to look down upon. 
“Who is the most noted woman in Europe?” 
asked the childless Madame de Stael of Na- 
poleon. “She who has reared the largest 
family,” was the sharp reply, and Korea would 
say, “Amen.” 

Woman is a useful member of society, for 
material interests hang on her hand. Once, 
on a walk by the city wall, we saw a man sit- 
ting on a stone weeping. His was a full- 
mouthed, heart-broken cry, as though the 
world had given way under him. “Why,” 
we asked. “Why all this fuss?” He looked 
vacantly at us for a moment, and then resumed 
where he had left off. We found that the 
trouble was about a woman, his wife, she had 
left him. “How he must have loved her to cry 
like that,” remarked a lady in the party. It 
was translated, but he resented it, “Loved her? 
I never loved her, but she made my clothes and 
cooked my food ; what shall I do? boo-hoo-oo,” 
louder and more impressively than ever. 

Thus was, yes, and still is, the world of 
woman, but mighty changes are taking place, 
and underneath the framework of her prison- 


Woman's 
Service in 
Material Thiags 


The Family 


106 KOREA IN TRANSITION 


house earthquakes are shaking. She is to be 
free, but what will her freedom mean? Con- 
fucius never guessed the place of woman in 
society, he missed the mark as widely as the 
Russians did in the battle of Tsushima. Jesus, 
in the face of all the ages that spoke opposition, 
placed her where God would have her and there 
by his grace she stands. She has been the 
slave, the dog, the toy, the chattel, the con- 
venience of men, for all past ages. Now new 
voices are heard proclaiming that she shall be 
free. 

The family exists but not the circle. There 
is no table around which they gather for meals, 
no reading nor music, no evening parties which 
draw them together, no ‘““At Homes”, no family 
pew in which to sit on Sunday, no picnic ex- 
cursions in which all members join. The mas- 
ter eats by himself, the wife by herself, the 
sons and daughters each separately and alone. 
Because of this, our custom of conversing at 
table, and allowing the talk and attention to 
wander all over the universe, while semicon- 
sciously. engaged in the serious act of “eating 
rice,” seems very absurd. “When you eat, 
eat, and when you talk, talk, but why re both 
at one and the same time?” 


SoctaL LIFE aNnD Customs 107 


Korean homes are in a sense open to all the 
world. Any one who pleases may try the door, 
push it open, and come in. He needs no first 
acquaintance, and no introduction. An ordi- 
nary Korean guest-room is free to all the world. 
On the other hand the inner quarters are sep- 
arate, and for a male traveler to venture there 
would be a breach of the most sacred law of 
society. Into this outer room, come gentle- 
men of leisure, tramps, fortune-tellers, Bud- 
dhist priests, all mankind, in fact. Here is 
located the high seat of the master. As you 
live in this guest-room, you feel the fearful 
lack of privacy. You are as though encamped 
on the open highway, under the gaze of all 
men. If you write a letter, the question is, 
to whom are you writing it. “Why do you 
write thus and thus? What reference is here? 
Who? When?” These are the questions that 
are asked by those who look over your 
shoulder, without any breach of proper form 
or infraction of the eternal law that governs 
things. 

It becomes a question sometimes with the 
young missionary as to how much he can stand 
of the search-rays of the human eye, and if 
he does break down what form the break- 


No Privacy 


An Ordeal to the 
Missionary 


108 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


down will take. In the early days especially, 
from chinks and corners came these never- 
ceasing search-lights. This is the East; it was 
born so, raised so, and lives so, unconscious 
of the burden of it. 
Mr MIT IN! The regular laws of cause and effect seem to 
be out of gear on this side of the 180th merid- 
ian, Medical practise is unreasonable. If you 
have a pain, a long darning-needle is stuck into 
you to relieve it. If you have an inner sick- 
ness, the doctor will ask you a question or two, 
then he will multiply earth by fire and divide 
by wood, and the result will be a mixture fit 
for the witch’s caldron, and this you are ex- 
pected to steep and drink from. Tous it seems 
very unreasonable. Still, we, on our side, to 
them are as much out of touch with their fitness 
of things as they to us. 

Recently a conversation between two Ko- 
reans, Yi and Kim, ran thus: 

“Tl tell you the reason, Kim, that we 
Koreans do not make as good soldiers as the 
Japanese, it’s because we are no hands at shut- 
ting one eye and keeping the other open. You 
must shut one eye, you know, to aim,” and Yi 
screwed up his face into a twisted knot to get 
his one eye to close, but it was in vain. 


An Hicminating 
Conversation 


SocraL LirE AND CUSTOMS 109 


“Nothing of the kind,” replied Kim, “I can 
shut one eye and leave the other open as much 
as I please.” 

“Then let me see you do it,” said Yi, all the 
time trying frantically to get his one eye to 
close properly. 

“No trouble about it,’ said ae rubbing 
the ink on the inkstone and then dipping his 
brush and tasting it. 

“Then I ask you to do it, let me see you 
shut one eye now and leave the other open.” 

“T could do it if I had a gun,” said Kim. 

“Oh, yes,” said Yi, “You could do it if you 
had a gun, but you can’t do it if you haven't, 
and the Japanese can.” 

One of the curses of Korean society is debt, 
and the persistency with which all people run 
therein. Every man would seem to owe the 
other. A clear statement, with all paid off and 
none due, seems never to have been heard of. 
Borrowing and paying huge interest has been 
the custom. Twenty years ago it was 12 per 
cent. a month. Little by little it has fallen till 
to-day it is 4 or 3 or 2 per cent. monthly, the 
lowest on record. 

Here is a note from the Seoul Press, written 
in 1906: “Koreans are not misers; they are 


Debt 


Unduly 
Generous 


Habitual 
Kindness and 
Official Cruelty 


I1O KoREA IN TRANSITION 


spendthrifts. Money glides by them and goes 
easily the way of all the earth. Every man 
aims to be rich, in order that he may have cash 
to spare; and nothing pleases him better than 
to part with it for a friend, in hospitality and 
good fellowship. Are they poor people or are 
they rich? No man knows. They have little 
money for necessities, but any amount for lux- 
uries. Americans would quarrel over a mite 
that Koreans would scorn to speak of. His 
relative over the way, the Chinaman, is a loath- 
some miser in comparison. The Korean will 
be hard up always and yet never break his pace 
as a gentleman of leisure. If I were poor, and 
had no means, and was obliged to throw my 
remaining days on the generosity of the pub- 
lic for food and clothes and comfort, I should 
appeal to the Korean, knowing that he would 
never see me want, would be respectful while 
generous, and would never be so mean as to 
cast up my good-for-nothingness to me.” 

The Koreans are a kind-hearted people. 
Those of us who have gone in and out among 
them for nearly a quarter of a century can 
vouch for it. No more gentle or hospitable 
race exists, and yet there have been through 
its history fearful outbreaks of cruelty, and 


SoctAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS III 


traces of these remain till to-day. If a man 
sinned against the state, the innocent women 
of his household suffered and the little children 
as well. 

In the troubles of 1885 an old conservative 
gentleman lived near the East Gate. When the 
names of the movers of the riot were published, 
his son’s name stood high up on the list. See- 
ing this, he went into the inner room, called his 
little grandchild and said, “Alas! we have lived 
to be disgraced, you by your father and I by 
my son. We shall die together.” So he and 
the little laddie drank the hemlock, and made 
atonement for the son. 

There is no individual in society, it is one 
body corporate. If one member sin all suffer 
with him. The fearful forms of torture loom 
up yet out of the shadows, the paddle, the rack, 
the chair, the cangue collar, the strangle-ring, 
the shin-rod, and various forms of mutilation 
remind one of what we see in the Tower of 
London. Truly we are brethren in cruelty if 
we go far enough into the dark past. But God 
who is rich in mercy, when he transforms an 
Oriental, seems first of all to take out of his 
heart the poison of cruelty, and to leave the 
spirit of self-sacrifice and tenderness instead. 


Making 
Atonement 


Mutual Suffering 


Lack of Hygiene 


Mr. Yi and the 
Mommy 


112 Korea IN TRANSITION 


“For the public weal” has never until re- 
cently cut any figure in Korean society. All 
common interests were left to the other person. 
Roads, as we have said, go where they like 
and as they please. Garbage-carts and wag- 
ons and a garbage-heap miles away from the 
city do not exist. Tue refuse heap is just out- 
side the front gate, and the kite birds and the 
summer rains are the scavengers. The streets 
become the backyards heaped high, and trav- 
elers through Ping-yang and Seoul get a fear- 
ful view of Korean life, seeing the very worst 
possible from the very first. Odors abound and 
epidemics are rife, but long usage has hardened 
those passing by, and the olfactory nerves no 
longer respond to this high vibration. 

It recalls to the writer Mr. Yi, consul- 
general and minister, who was once walking 
through Central Park Museum, New York. 
We reached the mummy chamber, and Mr. Yi 
gave one look at them and took firm hold of 
his nose. “Why do you hold your nose?” was 
the question asked. Without letting go his 
hold he pointed with the other hand at a 
mummy. “But he has been dead for five thou- 
sand years.” “Has he?”’ said he, taking a firmer 
grip. He would not have noticed one of these 


Socrat Lire anp Customs 113 


fearfully unkempt streets, but the supposed 
scent of the mummy he could not tolerate. 

Korea is clean in dress, however, and this 
makes the land a paradise when compared with 
Chefoo, China, for example. The frequent 
bathing that one sees in Japan does not exist, 
but the immaculate suits that are donned at 
every short interval, even by the poor, go far 
to make amends. 

Society as a body has been blind and deat 
and dumb. There have been no public gather- 
ings, no public opinion audible, and no eye 
that could see for the many. Christianity 
comes gently but persistently, step by step, in 
at all gateways. One of its marks is that it 
can speak, it is peculiarly a voice; it can see, 
and can control the eye. Through its good 
news society is awaking to see and to hear and 
to speak. 

Society is so interlocked and bound together 
by the patriarchal system that, not only is inde- 
pendent thought out of the question, but there 
is no room for patriotism, no room for sin- 
cerity, no place for accuracy. Chief among 
the many fathers, is the father of the family. 
Then there is the father of the state, the king, 
and as the father of the family has power ab- 


Immaculate 
Dress 


Society 
Becomlag 
Conscious 


System of 
Patriarchal 
Authority 


Several Present 
and Past 
Embodiments 


No 
Independence 
of Thought 


114 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


solute within the limits of his own home, so 
in state affairs the king is absolute. Human 
life and honor hang on his hand. “Exalt him,” 
reads the command, and behold the man is 
exalted. “Take him out and behead him,” and 
lo, the man, without trial or chance for his life, 
dies. 
Then there is the provincial father or magis- 
trate. He too within a narrower circle is ab- 
solute, and can reprimand and order and be- 
rate as he pleases.. Then there is the literary 
father, the schoolmaster, once greatly held in 
esteem, now fallen amid the debris of ancient 
systems and ideals. There are many other 
fathers, all of whom hold sway within their 
own sphere. : 

Such being the case, independence of thought 
or action is out of the question. Do, I must, 
as all others have done, safe-guarding the Oh- 
ryun, exalting the Oh-sang, and using the Oh- 
hang to help keep my bearings. When a new 
set of conditions arise that are not already 
provided for, the Korean is at sea. He is con- 
fronted by the dress problem these days, for 
example, and scoop hats and pole-stick skirts 
are coming on. He has never had any freedom 


in action heretofore, and suddenly he has fallen 


SocraL Lire anD Customs 115 


heir to it without preparation. Knowledge 
under any condition is the result of experience, 
so that even a sage in the classics may be but 
a child when it comes to baking bread or 
gardening. 

For generations the Korean has walked by 
instinct and not by reason. Every possible 
circumstance was provided for, and all he had 
to do was to shut his eyes and let himself go. 
But new conditions and a new world have 
come crashing into his ancient domain, and 
where is he? Esson Third says: “The other 
day an unsophisticated Korean was riding on 
a through train from Fusan, the fast express 
going at thirty miles an hour. For a time it 
amused and interested him to look about the 
painted wagon beneath which the landscape 
seemed to be racing in all directions. He 
looked at this and examined that, and finally 
grew tired of the inside of the car and poked 
his head out of the window to see how the 
world wagged. A gust of wind carried off his 
hat and hat-string, and away it went sailing 
down the valley. He shouted, ‘My hat,’ but 
the wagon made no response. In an instant he 
was at the door, out onto the platform, and 
before you could think, head first he went down 


Facing New 
Conditions 


An Impulsive 
inmterrogatory 


116 KoREA IN TRANSITION 


_over the embankment after that hat. We saw 


no more of him, but I imagined a pitiful bundle 
low in the valley, a mixture of white clothes, 
black topknot, and brown honest face, fear- 
fully crumpled over his plunge after a five cent 
hat.” Here were a new set of conditions, and 
he acted in his old way, by instinct instead of 
reason. ; 

Another Korean sat on the open platform 
of a construction train. The day was warm 
and he nodded in deep sleep. He was a man 
of the world, had seen much, and knew how 
to ride on railway trains. Deep was the nod 
and comfortable the sleep, but a curve met 
them around which the train whip-lashed 
violently, and away went this son of the Orient 
over the edge, down the green bank over and 
over till he reached the bottom, In an instant 
he was on his feet, wide awake, with a flash 
in his eye and a look at the train that said. 
“What in creation do you mean?” This cir- 
cumstance also was new, and the thought called 
forth was an impulse rather than a conclusion. 

With these laws governing, and customs 
binding round and round, and fierce ancestors 
standing as if on guard with shotgun, there 
has been no room for patriotism. “Keep your 


SociaL Lire anp CusToMs 117 


hands off Czsar and all that pertaineth to 
him,” has been a rule of life for old Korea. 
The principal association that went with gov- 
ernment was the long knife, the cangue collar, 
the paddle, the shin-rod, and other instruments 
of punishment. Patriotism therefore is a 
new product, and as yet somewhat abnormal 
in its character and growth. 

Korea has lived in an atmosphere of fear. 
When you could be arrested and beaten at 
the will of state father or provincial father, 
just when the whim might take him, what room 
was there for a long easy breath? The same 
writer quoted above says: “Koreans are all 
more or less cowards. Why should they not 
be so, living as they do without any confidence 
in anybody, ignorant of everything, and threat- 
ened all the time by ten thousand evil influ- 
ences? They have no idea of standing together 
or of organizing, and are just beginning to 
hear the mystericus words, ‘liberty, equality, 
fraternity’.”’ 

In olden days the standard of education was 
that derived from China, to-day it is mathe- 
matics. The Korean has come suddenly on a 
new vein, and is digging like a “forty-niner” 
to possess all of its treasure. Until the present 


Fear 


Lack of 
Accuracy 


A Fatalist 


118 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


time a lack of accuracy has been one of Korea’s 
characteristics. A writer in the Seoul Press 
says: “Time was nothing, day after to-morrow 
was just the same as the day before yesterday. 
A promise fails, not because men are dishonest, 
but because no one ever dreams of being exact 
in anything. In Korea a definite description 
is impossible, and exact information is out of 
the question. Hard and fast accuracy of 
statement does not get within signaling dis- 
tance of the Korean’s soul. He cannot under- 
stand what you mean by it. The newly ar- 
rived missionary physician says to the inter- 
preter: “Tell the patient to shake the bottle 
and take one half teaspoonful half an hour 
after meals, in a wine-glass of water’. The 
interpreter says: ‘Shake the jug, and take a 
good lot of the mixture five or six times a day 
till you feel better’.” 

The Korean, shorn of independent action 
and riveted to this machine called society, is 
an out-and-out fatalist. His Eight Characters 
settle his destiny. God the distant, all-power- 
ful, unapproachable One has his life in his 
keeping. His Oh-hang are always after him. 
What happens must happen, when he falls he 
must fall, if he’s poor he must be poor, when 


SoctaL LirFE AND CUSTOMS 119 


he dies he dies. His being has no play 
inside of the tight clamps that grip him round 
about. His belief in the fearful law of Unsu 
possesses him. If he fails in business it is 
Unsu; if he is dirty and miserable it is Unsu; 
if the state falls, no one is to blame, for no one 
can withstand Unsu. In a recent public lec- 
- ture the Hon. T. H. Yun, who is both a West- 
erner and a Korean, said to those before him: 
“Until you give up the word Unsu, there is no 
hope. It is nonsense, there is no such thing. 
Every man is his own Unsu, and can make 
of life what he will.” 

Underneath this social structure with its Oh- 
ryun and Oh-sang and Oh-hang great charges 
of dynamite are exploding. They have come 
about through the opening of the gates, the 
incoming of the missionary, and the invasion 
by Japan. This country’s ideals, so different 
from and so diametrically opposed to those of 
old Korea, are upon us, and a great smashing 
up of all the social system is taking place. 

Has the gospel anything to offer at such a 
time as this? When the old paternal system 
has given way and domestic life and govern- 
ment are at sea, it comes in tones of matchless 
simplicity and says: “Our Father, who art in 


Social Upheaval 


Startling Gospel 
Truths 


Freedom 


120 KoreEA IN TRANSITION 


heaven, thy kingdom come. In the Father’s 
house are many mansions, prepared for those 
that love him.” How about in-eui-ye-chi-shin? 
The character im, is made up of men and two, 
two men, showing that love always keeps in 
mind the other one; but chief of all altruis- 
tic teachers is the Word of God, and it comes 
with its message to take the place of the lost 
virtue, in. Eu, righteousness, is made up of 
sacrificial lamb, and first personal pronoun, I. 
I, underneath the sacrificial lamb, means right- 
eousness. My oneness with Jesus not only 
takes the place of the character, but fills 
out its thought, and makes the studies of the 
past a prophetic voice pointing to the great 
revelation. 

Where is freedom to be found, freedom from 
past bondage, from present bondage, from the 
bondage of self, from custom, from fear, from 
superstition? The heart of the nation these 
days goes out in longings for freedom. “Ye 


shall know the truth, and the truth shall.make 
you tree.” —Korea’s ancient civilization appears 


to be a planned opening of the way for receiv- 
ing the gospel at the present day; and the 
reader will doubtless be able to see through its 
bondage a groundwork for present hope. 


SoctaAL LIFE AND CUSTOMS iLAN 


SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER IV 


Atm: To APPRECIATE THE New NEeEeps oF KOREAN 
SoclETY 


I. The Ideals of Korean Society. 


I. Which of the five laws seem to you most, and 
which least ideal as to relationships? 

2.* Name what you consider the five principal 
virtues for mankind, and compare them with 
the Korean list. 

3. Compare the five Korean virtues with the 
fruits of the Spirit, mentioned in Galatians 
v. 22-23, and note the most striking differ- 
ences. 

4. Compare them with the two great command- 
ments given by Christ. 

5. What do you consider the most notable omis- 
sions in the list of Korean laws and virtues? 

6. What would you infer as to a system that 
made ceremony one of its five cardinal 
virtues? 


Il. The Rule of Custom. 


7. What effect will the Korean power of custom 
have upon the character of the virtues de- 
veloped? 

8. What classes profit most from a social order 
based on custom, the superior or the inferior? 
Illustrate your answer from the position of 
the woman and child in Korean society. 

9.* What are the advantages and what the dis- 
advantages of a society in which custom is all- 
powerful? 

10, What is its effect upon personal development? 


122 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


TL 


ke 


11. What is its effect upon public progress? 

12.* What have been the different ideals of Korean 
and American education? 

13. What ideals of American education are most 
needed in Korea? 


Changes Needed in Family Life. 


14. What have been the advantages and disad- 
vantages of giving the father of the family 
such absolute control? 

15.* Name in the order of their importance the 
changes you would like to make in Korean 
family life. Tell what you would expect to 
accomplish by each of them. 

16. What obstacles would you expect to meet in 
persuading the average Korean to accept these 
changes ? 

17.* What new moral ideals would be needed in 
order to make these changes effective? 

18. Why are these ideals especially needed in the 
present crisis? 

19. How can these ideals be secured? 

20. Tell how you would present Christianity to 
meet the needs of Korean society. 

21. Give passages of Scripture that you think 
would be most useful. 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY 
CHAPTER IV 


. Korean Character. 


Gale: Korean Sketches, chs. II, IX, X, pp. 23, 
238-243. 

Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, pp. 59, 66-60. 

Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. II. 


Il. 


SociaL LIFE AND CusToMS Pe 


Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 235, 236, 


336, 337- 
Underwood: The Call of Korea, pp. 44-51. 
Underwood: Fifteen Years Among the Topknots, 


Pp. 273-276. 
The Position of Woman. 


Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. XXVIII. 

Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 114-120, 
339-343, 355- 

Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, pp. 59-63. 

Underwood: The Call of Korea, pp. 52-55, 61-63. 

Noble: Ewa: A Tale of Korea, ch. IL 


’ 


A second cause contributing to the success of missi 
work in Korea is found in the conditions amidst which the 
missionaries labored. Misgovernment and oppression had 
reduced the people to despair. The measures taken for com- 
mercial and political betterment under native leadership had 
terminated in disappointing failure. The people were tired 
out, weary, and disheartened with the barrenness of pagan 
beliefs and religions. Morally they were pe as and mori- 
bund. Into the gloomy, chilly atmosphere of their moral life 
came the gospel of Jesus Christ with its radiant promises of 
better things, and the Koreans turned as instinctively to it as 
the flower to the sunshine. There has been a lack of com- 
petition with Christianity which has given to Christian forces 
virtually a monopoly of the field. No great educational de- 
velopment or commercial expansion, no large military and 
naval development has taken place to challenge and hold the 
attention of the people. There has not yet arisen in Korea a 
many-tongued press and literature, with its babel and clamor 
of beliefs and propositions to dispute with Christianity the 
control of the intellectual life of the people. The only new 
literature, and, with few exceptions, the only periodicals 
issued, came from Christian sources. Each political change 
and disturbance of the social order has accelerated the turn- 
ing of the Koreans to the Christian Church, while the absence 
of a nationalistic idea has resulted in a lack of strength and 
virility in the devotion of the average Korean to his religious 


beliefs. 
—George Heber Fones 


126 


V 
SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 


It is noticeable that missionaries who are The Hermit 
long in the interior develop a kind of hermit ‘ted 
instinct that makes them shun the company 
of their fellows. One dear wife, in her lonely 
exile, mourned for two years the loss of faces, 
voices, and companionships that had been her 
joy and had made the world for her; for the 
next two years she awoke to new environ- 
ments and found her soul tuned to new vibra- 
tions; for all the years afterward she was out 
of touch forever with the world that she had 
wept over. Its voices were not agreeable, its 
faces foreign, and she was at home and at peace 
with the yellow world and all its yellow ways. 
There is a disease that might be called hermi- 
toid, that manifests itself in a desire to be alone. 
Like malaria it will overtake the missionary 
unless he guards against it. Nations too may 
fall victims to the same complaint. The vic- 
tims avoid all foreign invitations; they shun 
commerce; they mistrust everybody ; they want 


127 


Former 
Opposition to ' 
Foreigners 


Tenorance of the 
Worl. 


128 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


to be alone. This was Korea’s complaint, till 
the decade of the eighties. 

The present universally beloved and honored 
Director of Religious Work in the Young Men’s 
Christian Association, S. J. Yi, was secretary 
to the first embassy to Japan in 1876. It was 
a great and unheard-of venture for Korea to 
reach out as far as Kobe, she being the Hermit. 
When there an Englishman sent in his card to 
the ambassador and said, “Let us meet and be 
friends.” The ambassador said, “Don’t touch 
it. Send it back and say, ‘We have no dealings 
with foreigners.’” Sign-posts along the way 
as late as 1880 said: “If you meet a foreigner, 
kill him; he who has friendly relations with 
him is a traitor to his country.” There seem- 
ingly is not a moment of quiet or a place of 
privacy in the whole land, and yet the broad 
base of Korea’s soul has marked on it, “Let me 
be alone.” 

Three great nations closed right in upon her, 
but the walls held, and, until the eighties, 
scarcely even the name of a foreign country 
was known. In 1889 the writer met the gov- 
ernor of Whanghai province, and in the course 
of conversation learned that that dignitary did 
not even know the name of America, Mi-guk, 


/ 


SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 129 


or Yong-guk, England, but thought that the 
Western world was all one country, Yang-guk. 
He knew of China as the Great Country, Td- 
guk, and of Japan as Wa-guk, Contemptible 
Dwarf Land. His world was still flat, and in 
the middle of it all was China, while on the east 
side of it was Korea. If you went far enough 
there were falling-off places into nowhere. All 
outside races were barbarians, and Korea de- 
sired converse with none of them. 

While other parts of the Orient were touched 
by this and that influence, Korea as though by 
order of some great resident-general was kept 
closely locked and barred. When the Chinese 
envoy came bringing a message from the Yel- 
low Emperor, he had a long train of retainers 
and hangers-on, horses and camels following. 
It would seem as though Korea would be oc- 
cupied permanently by this invading army, but 
not so, for when the envoy retired all others 
were “shooed” out after him. “Go in peace but 
go,” was the parting word. The retired scholar 
in the hills, living in a little hut, who sits with 
rod and line by the side of a stream catching no 
fish, but ever dreaming endless dreams of three 
thousand years ago, this man was the ideal of 
old Korea, the Hermit, the Unsa. 


Unreached by 
Outside 
Influences 


The Hour and 
the Missionary 


The Great War 


130 Korea IN TRANSITION 


Suddenly the command was issued from 
somewhere, “Open wide the gates,” and lo, in 
stepped the missionary. ‘The doors had re- 
mained fast closed till he was ready, but now 
the hour had come. From that day on the 
missionary has been the representative West- 
erner, not the merchantman nor the official, but 
the missionary, the moksa, pacing the length 
and breadth of the land, in the far north, down 
south, all the way from Seoul to Fusan, to 
Wi ju, gazed at by wondering multitudes. 

Korea might have remained a hermit still, 
had not a great war brought her prominently 
before the world. The greatest armies of 
modern times have marched across Korea; 
fleets that would eclipse the Armada have 
steamed round her shores. The greatest naval 
battle that the world ever saw took place within 
sound of her coast-line. God was pushing out 
the recently discovered Hermit to catch the at- 
tention of the world. The battle of the Yalu 
(Korea’s northern border line) between 
Kuroki and the Russians really opened the war, 
and the fleet that steamed out of Masanpo 
(south port of Korea) really closed it. In- 
cluded within the limits of the war were not 
only her boundaries, but her fate, her future. 


GROUP OF PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONARIES ITINERATING 


ITINERATING 


SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 131 


Not only was she pushed before the world Neg ane 
by newspaper reporters, war correspondents, 
and political writers, but the Hidden Hand 
linked her to the world’s newest and greatest 
highway. In place of being a forgotten corner, 
she is now a part of the steel rings that en- 
circle the earth. To this once unvisited city of 
Seoul, callers are coming from all over the 
world. Sunday after Sunday we have visitors 
who look down on the congregation from the 
platform, visitors from Japan, America, China, 
India, Europe, Australia“’\ Korea _is not mod- 
ern like Ja is older than China, and yet 
here is the West, sitting by\and looking on. 
God is using Korea as a missionary advertising 
agency for the whole Far Fast, and the line of 
callers is unbroken and growing in breadth and 
thickness. “How wonderful,” they say, “to see 
these hundreds of people gathered here in wor- 
ship!” “What are they talking about?” “He 
shall make you free, free from self, free from 
sorrow, free from sin, free from sickness and 
death,” and they all sing “Hallelujah.” The 
sightseer says that this is wonderful and 
passes on to tell of the awakening in the Far 
East. Korea is evidently being used as a pivot- 
point for the whole hemisphere. 


So Small 


Self-government 
and Self-defense 


132 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


It is fitting that Korea should play a special 
part in the progress of missions, for Korea is 
small as compared with adjoining territory and 
population. It has only 80,000 square miles. 
Shan-tung alone has 53,762, and a population 
of 36,247,000, a little more than half the size, 
with three times the population. The attention 
called to Korea these days seems by some spe- 
cial ordinance; for, man to man, it is far out of 
proportion to its size and population. A little, 
old remnant of a people seems about all they 
are as compared with the teeming multitudes 
of China, the dusty-coated hordes of Russia, 
or the picturesquely advertised world of Japan. 
Assuredly the last is first. 

Neither the science of self-government nor 
the science of self-defense is known to this peo- 
ple. They have got along with government 
under despots for generations past, and have 
been protected by no one knows whom, till at 
last a wild realization has settled over them 
that they have no king and no defense. Is this 
not one of the terrible facts that must confront 
one ere we see Jesus in all his attributes to 
save? We must conclude, after the surprises 
and changes of the last twelve years, that man’s 
hand is not in it, that cabinets and governments 


SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 133 


are outside of it, and that God has brought this 
last, little, long-forgotten people to the place 
where they say, “We have no king and no de- 
fense.” His reply out of the thick clouds of 
sorrow is, “Behold my Son, he is your King, 
and he is your Defense.” 

The place that trouble holds in the world of 
Christian experience, the turbulent seas of Gali- 
lee, the prisons, the lions’ dens that await the 
Christian on his pilgrimage, are of intense in- 
terest to the Korean. He studies them; he 
thinks of Peter under iron gate and guard, of 
Paul and Silas with feet in the stocks, of John 
on Patmos, and he comes to the absurd con- 
clusion that these men are not really Roman 
prisoners, but rulers of the world. Then he 
says: ‘““Here am I; nobody knows the trouble I 
see; my nation is shipwrecked; we are all in 
prison.”” A son who was a political suspect 
wrote to his father from the lock-up, “I’m in 
prison.” The father answered, “Be patient, 
my son, we are all in prison.” “Among tigers” 
is a fruitful theme for story-writers and politi- 
cal speakers; the Christian, however, with 
vision cleared for the distant horizons, sings, 
“Stand up my soul, shake off thy fears.” 
Wedded to God’s good news is tribulation. 


Trouble 


Korea’s Position 


134 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


How absurd it seems, and yet it is certainly so 
in the days of our best experience. They have - 
met in Korea, these two, and hand in hand 
they move persuasively everywhere, into the 
Palace, into the hut back of the grinding-mill, 
into the schoolroom, into the life of the lost, 
into the den of the slave, till trouble becomes a 
beautifully arched bridgeway to the regions of 
freedom and joy. As Cesar, the great enemy 
of the Jew, ruled at the time when the Savior 
himself came to visit them, so to-day under the 
rod of the alien a universal gospel invitation 
goes forth. 

Three great nations press close up around 
Korea. Japan to the fore, a first-rate power, is 
in command. She rules, keyed up to concert 
pitch. Very little remains for her for further 
advance; all the taxes she can bear, all the 
army she can raise, all the navy she can stand, 
this is Japan. No marked change in her near 
future is expected or is possible. Korea is per- 
fectly helpless in her hands, and if no other 
consideration were involved in the question of 
the Far East, her place would be fixed world 
without end. But Korea’s place and Korea’s 
future are by no means settled. To the north 
and west are the world’s greatest questions as 


SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 135 


to nations, Russia and China. Russia, half 
awake, elbows the East all along its northern 
boundary, Persia, Mongolia, China, Korea, 
Japan. Everybody is aware of Russia, and 
reports concerning the White Czar pass con- 
stantly. Korea spells it “white” and “king”, 
“white” up above and “king”? down below and 
that spells a special character meaning “su- 
preme emperor.’ White Czar points fatefully 
to the ultimate supremacy of the Russias in 
the East. 

On the west is China, snoring soundly as 
from a sleep of opium. Will she awake some 
day, colossus of the world? Weloveher. The 
Chinaman somehow stands for diligence, sim- 
plicity, capability, good order, mind-your-own- 
business, indifference, geniality, superstition, 
lack of hygiene, trustworthiness. Heaped up 
against Korea’s west boundary line are his un- 
countable millions. There was something ex- 
ceedingly impressive in the quiet voice of 
Hudson Taylor when he said “China’s mil- 
lions.” What possible relation has the atom to 
the mass? and yet God has put Korea here 
and surrounded her by these portentous possi- 
bilities. Undoubtedly her position has in it 
something of God’s great plan. Let the stu- 


China’s Millions 
on the West 


Language 


Three Written 
Forms 


136 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


dent of missions ponder well over the map of 
mS and see where and how Korea sits. 

( We think we see a providence in the matter 
of Korea’s written and spoken languages. Be- 
ing a little country she has but one speech, and 
when a man of the north says, “Peace,” to the 
man of Quelpart, he understands and answers 
“Pyung-an-hassio” (Peace). Their ears are 
all tuned to the same sounds, though there are 
variations of dialect, as between the Scotch and 
Trish, each of whom understands the other 
perfectly and each maintains that his talk is the 
standard “King’s English”. 

As for written languages she has no less 
than three: pure Chinese, pure Un-mun, and 
mixed script. Japan, while somewhat similarly 
situated to Korea in the matter of language, 
has not all her freedom. Poor China flounders 
about hopelessly trying to find some vehicle 
that will convey thought from the page to the 
mind of the simple. She tries the character and 
labors hard to learn it. The teacher, in ex- 
plaining the ideograph to the pupil, says : “Now 
listen. When you have ‘heart’ to left and 
‘blood’ to right, the character means ‘to 
pity’; but when you have ‘heart’ on one side 
and ‘star’ on the other, it means ‘wake up’. 


SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 137 


When there is ‘hand’ on one side, and ‘foot’ 
on the other, it means ‘to take hold’. When 
‘water’ is on one side, and ‘stand up’ on the 
other, it means ‘to cry’. When it has two 
‘speeches’, and ‘sheep’ standing between them, 
it means ‘good’. When ‘grass’ is on top and 
‘name’ is down below, it means ‘tea’, and so 
on and so on, till the brain grows dizzy, 
and two thousand characters and more are 
learned. Then they must be read from the 
string along which they are strung. “For- 
father -thing-do-one-son-also-do-father-love- 
son-so-already-everything-do-one-make-know.” 
This represents the struggle of China, Korea, 
and Japan after thought through the medium 
of the character. How labored and shadowy, 
but how simple when run out in native script: 
“For the thing the Father does, the Son does 
also; the Father loves the Son, and shows him 
all he does.” 

Korea’s native script is surely the simplest 
language in the world. Invented in 1445 A. 
D., tit has come quietly down the dusty ages, 
waiting for, who knew what? Never used, it 
was looked on with contempt as being so easy. 
Why yes, even women could learn it in a month 
or little more; of what use could such a cheap 


Un-mun, or the 
Native Script 


Mixed Script 


138 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


script be? By one of those mysterious provi- 
dences it was made ready and kept waiting for 
the New Testament and other Christian litera- 
ture. Up to this day these have had almost 
exclusive use of this wonderfully simple. lan- 
guage. This perhaps is the most remarkable 
providence of all, this language sleeping its 
long sleep of four hundred years, waiting till 
the hour should strike on the clock, that it 
might rise and tell of all Christ’s wondrous 
works. They call it Un-mun, the “dirty lan- 
guage,” because it is so simple and easy as 
compared with proud Chinese picture writing. 
God surely loves the humble things of life, and 
chooses the things that are naught to bring to 
naught the things that are. Tied in the belts 
of the women are New Testaments in common 
Korean; in the pack of the mountaineer on 
his brisk journeying; in the wall-box of the 
hamlet home; piled up on the shelf of the liv- 
ing-room are these books in Un-mun telling 
of Ye su (Jesus), mighty to save.) The writer 
counts it among his choicest privileges that he 
has had a share in its translation, that to him 
were assigned John, Acts, Romans, Galatians, 
Ephesians, and Revelation. 

As for the third language we have the mixed 


SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 139 


script. It is composed partly of Chinese char- 
acters and partly of pure Un-mun, and is used 
by Chinese readers and those who are fairly 
well educated. The Korean might be said to 
be three quarters eye and one quarter ear. He 
is never sure of a sentence till he sees it. You 
may say, “Sit still now till I read it to you. 
Yes, [’ll even spell it out to you.” He'll repeat 
it after you, and yet he is not sure of the mean- 
ing till he sees it. When he sees it, he exclaims, 
“Oh, now I understand.” When he reads Chi- 
nese out loud he does not do so for the benefit 
of listeners, nor does he do so that his own 
ears may hear, he repeats the sound in order 
that his eye may be helped to see more clearly. 
The place of the eye, and the relative impor- 
tance of sight as compared with hearing is a 
very interesting subject to students of the East. 

The result is that we have three written lan- 
guages, and a vast army of readers. Whereas 
in China and India one among a thousand per- 
haps can read, in Korea reading is almost 
universal. Those who have had no education 
can in a month or so “awake” to the common 
script, and are possessors of the Bible. Is it 
not a sign and a wonder that in this old for-~ 
gotten land, with its conservative notions and 


A Vast Army of 
Readers 


A Literary 
People 


The Korean’s 
Ambition for 
Scholarship 


140 KOREA IN TRANSITION 


backward ways, the New Testament should be 
sold by millions of portions and whole copies? 

Another providence is that they have been 
preserved a literary people through all the 
changes of the past. They are not commercial 
nor military, but are literary. They exalt 
books, and so the Book of all books is gladly 
welcomed. They honor high teachings, and the 
gospel is treated as a prince bearing his tribute 
of righteousness, peace, and joy. This being 
the case, the missionary has had prepared for 
him a special place of honor, prepared from 
past ages and awaiting his arrival. He is the 
man with the book, not the man who comes to 
deal in lands, houses, or money ; he is a spiritual 
master of literature, a teacher, a guide, a model 
for the common man. How shall we express 
regret sufficient for the missionary who fails to 
hold the exalted place prepared for him and 
given by this people? 

The fact that education has been the supreme 
object or prize of Korean ambition evidences 
another special providence. More than for 
wealth or office, he has longed for scholarship. 
To be a litterateur and able to read the dots 
and strokes and spear-points of the Chinese 
character was the all in all of existence. The 


SPECIAL PROVIDENCES I4I 


scholar was a king, and associated with him 
were the dragon, the phenix, the unicorn, the 
tortoise, and the stork—all of these having to 
do with profound spiritual meanings. These 
attainments cut him off from the common 
haunts of men as the mountain forest is cut off 
and stands alone, hence he is called Sa-rim 
(Teacher Woods), or San-lim (Mountains and 
Woods), or Yu-rim (Confucian Forest), or 
Eun-il (Run Away and Hide). 

His was a long and arduous course of study, 
and if we measure attainment by hours con- 
sumed, by feats of memory, by the manipula- 
tion of most difficult signs, certainly the degree 
of a Korean scholar meant more than one from 
Yale, Oxford, or Johns Hopkins. 

He begins by reading the Thousand Char- 
acter Classic, then the Tong-mong Son-seup 
(The Primer), a book which deals with the 
Five Principles. Then several Chinese his- 
tories are read, the student never learning any- 
thing about his own country, but of China only 
—Mencius, the Analects, the Doctrine of the 
Mean, the Books of History and Poetry, and 
finally the Yi-king,—king of all absurd com- 
positions. For a third of the time the student 
reads, for a third of the time he composes, for 


Long and 
Arduous Course 
of Study 


Curriculum and 
Results 
Produced 


The Present 


142 KoreA IN TRANSITION 


a third of the time he writes. From twenty 
years of this treadmill comes forth a peculiar 
but most interesting type of graduate. From 
long contact with imperious and opinionated 
teachers, he has grown perfect in the matter of - 
respect to seniors, his downsittings and upris- 
ings are all in accordance with eternal law, his 
manner of deportment would delight a czar or 
imperial Mogul, his powers of concentration 
and attention are remarkable, his refinement of 
bearing most distinguished, and in forms of 
expression and dignity he could teach a prince. 
Within certain fixed limits he is a poet, a prose 
writer, a dreamer, a dream. It seems like sacri- 
lege to break into this old and interesting 
world, but, like Burns to the daisy, there is no 
help for it: 
“Stern Ruin’s plowshare drives, elate, 
Full on thy bloom, 


Till crushed beneath the furrow’s weight 
Shall be thy doom.”’ 


The new century with keen colter and long ~ 
share has driven, is driving, will drive, through 
all the ideals of the East, and with them edu- 
cation. The rooms that once echoed with the 
voices of little boys shouting out the old 
phrases, as they memorized the Thousand 


Saar 


Pa ee we oe 
** ye 


“es 
ve. 


KorEAN TEACHER WITH PUPILS 


SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 143 


Character Classic, are silent, and instead, on 
benches arranged in rows, sit a new generation 
of this new century learning arithmetic, geog- 
raphy, history, and the other branches of 
modern education. The change is the most mo- 
mentous that has come in a thousand years; 
namely, that the ideals and gods of yesterday 
should to-day be dishonored and forgotten. 
Some of us have seen it with our eyes, have 
lived through this revolution, have lived in it 
over a span of twenty centuries, out of yester- 
day’s B. C. into to-day’s A. D. Is it a dream 
or is it real? Are these people those of twenty 
years ago, with their thoughts and desires and 
purposes, or are they another race who have 
been grafted on in a night, and have I slept 
like Rip Van Winkle and lost track of my 
bearings ? 

Christian schools are the crying need. To 
catch this wave on the crest and this moment 
ere it pass is our heart’s desire for Korea. In 
Ping yang and Seoul already schools have been 
established where the students make as good a 
showing as in any place in the world, though 
they say the multiplication table backwards and 
write the denominator of a fraction before they 
write the numerator. 


Mission Schools 


Desire for 
Education 


Right 
Adjustment to 
the State 


Bucas and Other 
Developments 


144 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


A great fever for education has taken pos- 
session of the people of the peninsula. At every 
public gathering where education is mentioned, 
it touches a thousand electric buttons, and men 
are on their feet, wide awake, and excitement 
runs high. All eyes are bright when education 
speaks. Schools are cropping out of the soil 
like mushrooms. Tight-fisted men who never 
gave a cash for the welfare of another are 
aroused by the call for education to advance 
thousands. . Names are widely advertised to- 
day, such as The Wake-up School, The School 
of Great Achievement, Forward March School, 
The College of Fair Letters, and similar desig- 
nations. 

The government is trying to find some way 
to handle the educational question and keep it 
from running away with the state; a set of rules 
and regulations has just been issued by which 
ail the odds and ends and little facts and great 
shali be known about all the schools in all the 
land, whether the School of Great Achieve- 
ment or the College of Fair Letters. 

This wild thirst for knowledge has never 
been seen before, was unheard of till the pres- 
ent day; now it is realized, and the thirsty man 
will drink. Books are pouring out of the 


SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 145 


presses, such as Kyung-kuk Mi-tam, which tells 
the immortal story of Athens and Sparta; one 
about Madame Roland, one about Garfield, one 
on Garibaldi, one on the time of King John of 
England, on Algebra, Trigonometry, Meta- 
physics, Surveying and many other subjects. 
Groups of young men are seen going about 
with light red-ringed poles and tables for re- 
cording every angle and measuring every hill. 
The difference in time represented by a map of 
the city made ten years ago and one made to- 
day by these young surveyors is the difference 
between the days of Balaam the prophet and 
Edison the seer. 

One young man, an earnest Christian, and 
altogether a gentleman, has the name of being 
the best teacher of mathematics in the city. He 
is worn down by the incessant calls on his time. 
He teaches an hour here and then dashes off in 
his jinrickisha to teach an hour yonder. On into 
the night he keeps up this treadmill till his face 
is pale and his body worn down by the grind 
of it. Hundreds of young men are after him 
like hounds on the scent. Fathers who yester- 
day whiffed the pipe of indifference and rumi- 
nated of Yo and Sun, are but ghosts and shades 
compared with these sons and daughters of 


New Currents 
of Interest 


A Revolution 


Public Utilities 


146 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


theirs who care not a rap for the Yellow Em- 
peror of China, 2300 B. C., but want to know 
why x minus y multiplied by x plus y equals x 
square minus y square. 

This is not the French Revolution and theve 
is no Feast of Pikes, but a revolution it is, and 
a kicking off of old shackles and feet-clamps 
and such a breaking of rusted links as the East 
never saw before. What will the end be? It 
will be that this old picturesque corner of the 
world will become prosaic West, and the sub- 
ject thereof will be a good or bad man accord- 
ing as he meets with the arnt or bad to lead 
the way. 

Already we have electric cars running the 
length of the city, managed by Koreans, and 
they make first-class motormen; a line of steel 
rails stretches the length of the peninsula and 
couples it on to Europe and the Western world, 
Hydrants all along Bell Street bubble with 
water from the river five miles away, pure and 
safe, compared with the pestiferous wells from 
which the people of the city formerly drank. 
Young men of to-day talk of hygiene and mi- 
crobes and bacteria, so that the old conserva- 
tive who does not believe a word of it sees his 
world drifting from beneath his feet. 


SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 147 


In a most providential and wonderful way, 
Korea has been preserved as a sort of model of 
Bible times and Bible lands. In the early days 
of missionary experience so many of these asso- 
ciations crossed one’s path that we walked as 
in a dream; later, familiarity somewhat dulled 
the consciousness of them, and they are for- 
gotten or overlooked, but even yet after twenty 
years, notwithstanding all the changes that 
have occurred, voices and scenes call up the 
days of David and Daniel, Peter and Paul. 

When a man bows down, low down, or wor- 
ships before God, his face is literally in the dust, 
and his brow touches the ground. Thus David 
bowed before Saul?, and thus Saul bowed be- 
fore the ghost of Samuel”. All about us are 
_ salutations of ‘“‘Peace”’, “Peace”, “Go in 
peace”, “Sleep in peace’, “Eat in peace”, “Rest 
in peace”, “Pyung-an, Pyung-an’’, as the old 
Hebrews said “Shalom” or the Moslems still 
to-day say “Salaam”. It calls up the Savior’s 
words in John xiv. 27. It was the salutation 
in his time; it is the salutation in Korea to-day. 
When the native reads the Bible it speaks of 
peace to him, and it speaks it in a much more 


1z Sam. xxiv. 8. 
21 Sam. xxviii. 14. 


A Model of 
Scripture Times 


Salutations 


References to 
Marriage and 
Other Customs 


The Law of 
Sacrifice 


148 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


intelligible way than it does to the American 
or European. 

“Behold, the bridegroom! Come ye forth to 
meet him.” Here he comes mounted high on 
his white charger, with royal robes on, accom- 
panied by an army of glad retainers who shout, 
“Clear the way, the bridegroom cometh.”’ How 
much it seems like dreamland. All untouched 
by the rest of the world, these customs have 
held till Jesus came, and thus his words and 
his times are most familiar; thus too the 
watches of the night, and the cockcrow of the 
morning. 

The great law of sacrifice, so dimly under- 
stood by Western people, is the commonest talk 
of Korea. For thousands of years sheep and 
oxen have died for the sins of the people. Birds 
and beasts have been offered in a vain effort to 
lift this burden from the human soul. I read 
in a history of Korea that in the year when our 
Savior was born in Bethlehem, the king of 
Kokuryu went out into the open plain to offer 
sacrifice to God. Two ‘swine beasts’ were to be 
offered, but in the preparation of the sacrifice 
they took to their heels and ran away. The 
king sent two officers in pursuit, Messrs. Takni 
and Sappi. They chased the pigs to Long Jade 


SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 149 


Lake, caught them and hamstrung them, so 
that they could not run again; then they 
dragged them before the king. “How dare 
you”, said he, “offer to God a mutilated sacri- 
fice?’ He had- these two gentlemen buried 
alive for their sin, but behold he himself shortly 
after fell seriously ill. A spirit medium called 
and told him his sickness was due to the sin of 
having killed Takni and Sappi. He confessed, 
and prayed, and was cured of his complaint. 

In this story old as our era, we read of the 
need of a sacrifice to God, of a perfect sacrifice, 
of sin being followed by punishment, of for- 
giveness following confession. A race drilled 
in stories like this find no difficulty in the great 
vicarious sufferings of Jesus. His perfect of- 
fering is simplicity itself; his forgiveness of 
sin the logical outcome of his whole attitude of 
heart. 

The expression, “Girt about the breasts with 

a golden girdle,”* is never quite clear to a 
young Bible reader at home, and China and 
Japan cast no special light upon it; but in Korea 
there was the long white robe down to the feet, 
and round the breast the embroidered girdle. It 
remained until after the missionary arrived, 


— 
1 Rev. i. 13. 


Ideas Long 
Prevalent 


References to 
Dress 


Foot-gear 


The Bed 


150 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


and then in the changes of the new century the 
girdle was swept away. The white robes too 
find their corresponding part in Scripture, and 
the expression, “So as no fuller on earth can 
white them,”! often came to mind in the old 
days, when out of the little squalid huts came 
forth coats that shone like polished marble. 
Then there is the foot-gear or sandals. 
Neither China nor Japan so markedly reflects 
Scripture in this respect as Korea. Here are 
the strings tied over the instep, here the humble 
servant is called to bow down and unloose 
them. As in Judea, they are never worn in- 
doors but are dropped off on the entrance-mat. 
“Take up thy bed, and walk,”* seemed to 
the writer in his boyhood days as a most ex- 
traordinary expression. He pictured a four- 
posted bed being tugged out of a bedroom by 
one poor man only just recovered of his sick- 
ness; but when he came to Korea, he under- 
stood it all. The bed was just a little mattress 
spread out on the floor of the living-room, and 
to roll it up and put it away was the common 
act of every morning when the sleeper awoke. 
Morning light and consciousness had come into 


1 Mark ix. ge 
2 Matt. ix. 5, 6. 


SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 151 


the life of the poor invalid, so he would roll 
up his sleeping-mat and walk off to where it 
was put for the day. In so many of the com- 
mon acts of life in Korea we were in touch with 
the days of our Lord on earth. 

Especially are Koreans inquisitive and curi- 
ous as to custom. Had the Scriptures been 
filled with Western ways of life, it would have 
taken all day and all these years to tell what 
this and that meant; but, as they talk from 
first to last about Korea’s own world and own 
people, there are few or no questions as to 
custom. 

How far away the Bible seems to us when 
it tells of sackcloth and ashes, and about Jacob’ 
and Mordecai* and Isaiah? who marked their 
desolation by these signs. In Korea sackcloth 
is still such a mark, and with hair unbound and 
their persons wrapped about with these coarse 
folds of bagging, they sit like Job and cry 
“Aigo, aigo.”. “And the mourners go about 
the streets.” From the writer’s house we look 
out on one of the main thoroughfares of the 
city; and frequently, as the sun goes down, 
there comes a procession bearing lanterns and a 
long line of mourners in sackcloth following 


1Gen. xxxvii. 34. 2?Estheriv. 7. #Isa. lviii. 5. 


Forestalls a 
Multitude o? 
Questivan 


Sackcloth and 
Ashes 


Idolatry 


Demon 
Possession 


152 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


the dead with mournful wailings. Is there not 
a thought and a providence underlying the one- 
ness of these things with all the settings of the 
Scripture ? 

What grinning teeth and glaring eyes meet 
you on the highways and byways of Korea 
that you unconsciously associate with Dagon, 
Moloch, Chemosh, and Baal, and other gods 
and idols to whom Israel bowed down. Amer- 
ica has heard of idols, has seen them in muse- 
ums, has looked on them through the pages of 
Scripture, but to see an idol actually in com- 
mand of his own and at work would be thought 
almost an impossibility. 

Another fact that brings the people closely 
into touch with Christian thought is their 
understanding of demon possession. They ac- 
cept it as a something not to be questioned any 
more than their own existence; demons are 
everywhere, and the casting of them out a 
lucrative profession. “By thy name cast out 
demons ;”! “He cast out the spirits with a 
word;’? “Authority to cast out demons;’* 
“Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast 
seven demons.”* We of the West read these 
statements as if they belonged to another 


1 Matt. vii. 22. 2 Matt. viii. 16. 3 Mark iii. 15. * Mark xvi. 9g. 


SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 153 


planet. We question the whole subject of 
demon possession. Can it not be diagnosed by 
the doctors? Will not a tablet or a pill settle 
the matter? Is it not the misunderstanding of 
an unenlightened age? All of these questions 
put us so much out of touch with the story. 
The Korean’s doubts are along another line. 
‘Can Jesus really cast them out? That’s the 
question. Big devils as well and wicked? Is 
this all true, and does he care for the possessed 
and the imprisoned? “The devil we know and 
demon possession we are sure of, but just who 
is Jesus?” Surely the Korean’s preparatory 
course has been eminently one to fit him for 
the reading and appreciating of the New Testa- 
ment. 

He attributes sickness in so many cases to 
the influence of malignant spirits. “Divers 
diseases,”’! is a phrase terribly applicable to the 
filth, poverty, and teeming multitudes of the 
East. The twisted limbs, the blinded eyes, the 
diseased and marred bodies, were all invited, 
yes, and are all invited to come to Jesus, and 
according to your faith it shall be unto you. 
‘Assuredly God can take the wrath, the mean- 
ness, the sores, the impurity, the leprous spots, 


1 Matt. iv. 24; Mark i. 34; Luke iv. 4o. 


Sickness 


A Gentleman 


Points Making 
Koreans 
Receptive 


154 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


of men and make them servants to minister to 
his honor and glory. 

The representative Korean is a man some- 
thing like Nicodemus, a gentleman by instinct, 
habit, and manner of speech. He came by night 
to see Jesus, afraid that he would lose “face” by 
coming in the daytime. Korean-like, he begins 
by a high expression of regard, “Teacher come 
from God”; by, a honorific, he knows Jesus is 
true; he wants to follow him, his heart is pre- 
pared for the seed that falls, and eventually he 
comes in at a critical moment for a service of 
high honor. May it be with Korea as it was 
at last with Nicodemus, a place of special con- 
secration at the close of this gospel age! The 
gentleness of this people, their appreciation of 
high morals, notwithstanding the lack of the 
same in their own history, their exalting of 
principles of right, is a preparation for the 
gospel call. . 

Outwardly, by habit, custom, and ceremonial 
form, they are equipped to understand the 
Bible; the air they breathe seems impregnated 
with the flavor of the days of Christ; the mov- 
ings of their world are along the lines of 
ancient Palestine; their inner thoughts are re- 
corded in the Scriptures; their superstitions 


SPECIAL PROVIDENCES “155 


just as they were in the days of Israel’s decline; 
their understanding of spiritual forces just 
what the nations round Judea understood them 
to be; their conclusions concerning life what 
the worldly of the Bible concluded life to be. 

To meet these conditions, is this wonderful 
language, Un-mun. Like the shot that hit the 
target, it strikes squarely into the opportunity 
of to-day, and prepares the land for what God 
is asking of it. Nationally last, least, and less 
than nothing, how beautifully is Korea suited 
to God’s hand! At just this time, too, mission- 
ary boards are awake, and new forces are press- 
ing in. Yesterday Korea sat weeping over her 
disbanded soldiers, to-day she welcomes the 
army of salvation to take the vacated and deso- 
lated place. Through these things a multitude 
of providences seem to shine and shimmer 
forth. 


SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER V 


Aim: To UNDERSTAND THE PROVIDENTIAL ENCOURAGE- 
MENTS TO MISSIONARY WorK IN KoreEA 


I. The Providences of History and Geography. 


1. State as vividly as you-can the contrast be- 
tween the exclusiveness of Korea thirty years 
ago and the situation to-day.. 


Providential 
Encouragements 


156 


II. 


KOREA IN TRANSITION 


2. How completely has God answered the prayers 
that the doors of Korea might be opened? 

3. What has he done to call the country into 
public prominence? 

4. Why must it inevitably remain in public 
prominence? 

5. Of what advantage has it been that the most 
representative foreigner has been the mis- 
sionary? 

6. Why does the size of Korea fit it for becom- 
ing a missionary object-lesson to the Far East? 

7. Could you choose a more favorable geograph- 
ical position for such an object-lesson? 

8.* Why has Christianity a better chance to ally 
itself with Korean than with Chinese or Jap- 
anese patriotism? 

9.* Sum up the message of Christianity to a peo- 
ple in political distress. 


The Providences of Language and Literature. 


to. Name several advantages to missionary work 
arising from the currency of a single spoken 
language throughout an entire country. 

11. What would be the disadvantages to a nation 
of knowing only the Roman numeral system? 

12. Would this be such an obstacle to progress as 
having only the Chinese character for literary 
purposes? 

13.* What are the advantages to Christianity of 
having so promptly appropriated the Unmun 
script? 

14. As far as literature is concerned, what would 
be the relative difficulty of evangelizing Korea 
and a province of China of the same size and 
population? 


SPECIAL PROVIDENCES 157 


15. What practical effect should the Korean re- 
spect for literature have upon the training 
and methods of missionaries? 

16.* What advantages has the missionary in Korea 
over the average African missionary in his 
evangelistic work? 

17.* In view of present providences, make as 
strong an appeal as you can for evangelistic, 
literary, and educational missionaries for 
Korea to-day. 

18. What practical recommendations would you 
make to the Church at home as to the support 
of educational institutions in Korea? 

19. In what ways is the present a greater oppor- 
tunity for education than either the past or 
the future? 

20. How would you translate, “Behold the Lamb 
of God,” for a people that had no sheep and 
no sacrifices ? 

21. In what ways would it be more difficult to 
translate the Bible into Esquimo than into 
Korean? 

22.* Arrange the principal providences of mission- 
ary work in Korea in what seems to you the 
order of their importance. 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY 
CHAPTER V 
. Korean Education. 


Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. XXVI. 

Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, ch. XIII (up 
to 1896). 

Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 387-301. 

Underwood: Fifteen Years Among the Topknots, 


PP. 303, 304. 


Mi 


ti 


na 
\ 


’ 
h 


H 
ve 
" 
t 


PIONEER METHODS OF THE 
MISSIONARIES 


159 


The missionary body in Korea is made up of a very superior 
company of men and women. Both sexes are apt to be col- 
lege graduates, while the men are in addition graduates of 
seminaries or medical schools. Quite a number have shown 
marked scholarship in the study of the language, in interpre- 
tation and translation, and in general literature. Historical 
and descriptive works of value have been published by them, 
while at least one extended and well-received romance is 
the result of one man’s leisure, and another was a contributor 
te some of our best magazines. 

—Horace N. Allen 


In the spring of 1890, Dr. and Mrs. Nevius, of Cheefoo, 
China, visited Seoul, and in several conferences laid before the 
missionaries there the method of mission work commonly 
known as the Nevius method. After careful and prayerful 
consideration, we were led, in the main, to adopt this, and it 
has been the policy of the mission first, to let each man 
“abide in the calling wherein he was found,’’ teaching that 
each was to be an individual worker for Christ, and to live 
rong in his own neighborhood, supporting himself by his 
trade. 

Secondly, to develop Church methods and machinery only 
as far as the native Church was able to take care of and 
manage the same. 

Third, as far as the Church itself was able to provide the 
men and the means, to set aside those who seemed the better 
qualified, to do evangelistic work among their neighbors. — 

Fourth, to let the natives provide their own church build 
ings, which were to be native in architecture, and of such 
style as the local church could afford to put up. 


—Horace G. Underwood 


160 


VI 


PIONEER METHODS OF THE 
MISSIONARIES 


On April 5, 1885, H. G. Underwood, the First Entrance 
first clerical missionary, landed in Korea. Al- 
ready the Roman Catholics had been in the 
country for forty-eight years; already a New 
Testament had been printed in the native script 
by John Ross of Mukden; already Chinese 
books had reached the peninsula; already 
miany rumors of the Christian and the Chris- 
tian’s God had crossed the northern border. 

Many priests of the Roman Catholic Church, Persecution 
native, Chinese, and foreign, had been tortured 
and put to death, and there was a fear as- 
sociated with the foreign religion. Natives 
still pointed out the place by the Han River 
where Bishop Berneux and eight priests had 
been beheaded. Jesus and Mary were names 
with which to stop the heart-beat. One old 
dame who had seen it all, and had outlived the 
reign of terror, in telling it to the writer forty 
years afterward, would not speak above her 
breath. I asked: “Is your heart at peace?” 


101 


Foreigners 


The Pioneers 


162 KoreEA IN TRANSITION 


She replied “‘Whist, Yesu-Maria, my sons were 
in it you know, Yesu-Maria, Yesu-Maria.” 
Although there has grown up, little by little, a 
distinction between Yesu Kyo (Protestantism) 
and C’hun-ju Kyo (Catholicism) it was not 
recognized at first, and the dread associated 
with the one gathered about the other. 
Western people too, as well as their doc- 
trines, were unsavory. There had been an 
American ship captured and its crew massacred 
in Ping yang, in 1866. In the same year a 
French expedition was fitted out against Kang- 
hwa. In 1871, Americans had come in many 
ships and fought likewise. In 1875, the Jap- 
anese came and fought too, so that the West 
and the Japanese were alike. Kanghwa, the 
island at the mouth of the Han River, has been 
a broad target for all shots, from the days of 
Kublai Khan (1225) to Admiral Rodgers and 
Commodore Shufeldt (1867, 1871, 1883). 
Fortunately the missionary entered Korea 
with many things arrayed against him. Had 
everything been in his favor, his work would 
have been easy and very badly done, but he 
had to fight every inch of the way. Let the 
reader think what he would do first, if he were 
asked to transport America over to the East 


PIONEER METHODS 163 


piecemeal, where would he begin, what would 
he ship first, and when would he expect to get 
through? About as bewildering a problem is 
it to carry the gospel to an entirely mew race 
and new people, having to place before each 
person, little by little, our motives, our expec- 
tations, our customs, our hearts especially, 
ere we can get into tune to begin Bible work 
and Scripture teaching. Let us be thankful 
that the pioneers were just the right men for 
the work .on hand. While the Hon. H. N. 
Allen, M. D., as a medical missionary opened 
the work, in the mind of the writer he is dis- 
associated from the missionary list. He was 
a diplomatist, from his first entry till the close 
of his distinguished career, in 1905. His name 
stands high in Korea, honored and beloved by 
native as well as foreigner, for he served many 
years in behalf of Americans and this people 
faithfully and well. 

But of missionaries proper, Underwood and 
Appenzeller were the clerical, and Heron and 
Scranton the medical. It needed men of cour- 
age, men of vision, men of courtly manner, 
men of magnetism; it needed also men of 
strong conviction and physical endurance, and 
we had such qualifications in these four. Of 


Qualities 
Needed 


‘Counter- 
evasiderations 


164 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


the Presbyterians, the writer recalls a day in 
1888, his first tiffin in Seoul. Ten were at the 
table, among them these two pioneers. To- 
day after a score of years, he is alone on 
the field of all the ten. When he thinks back 
over that first bright company of the young 
hearts, each with life offered for Korea, of the 
hopes, of the vacant places now, of the long 
farewells, he would bow his head and repeat 
slowly : 
“They climbed the steep ascent to heaven, 
Through peril, toil, and pain; 


O God! to us may grace be given 
To follow in their train.” — 


The considerations that have acted against 
the work have run somewhat as follows: For 
the first few years it was dangerous to be a 
Christian, it was counted the same as Roman 
Catholic, and Roman Catholics had been 
slaughtered by the thousands. Later it was 
not dangerous, but it was cheap, common; 
butchers, and basket-makers, and well-diggers, 
and shopkeepers, and coolies were all admitted ; 
certainly it was no calling for a gentleman. 
Still later, in stirring political times, it was 
the popular thing to be a Christian, till it was 
discovered that the Church was “hands off” 


PIONEER METHODS 165 


as regards Cesar, that it was apathetic and 
no man with “sand” in his make up or “gin- 
ger” in his blood could afford to be a Chris- 
tian. The converts seemed to sit by and see 
the country go to the dogs, so it was not for 
the patriot. Last of all the Church was not an 
enemy of Japan or the Japanese, therefore it 
was no good; it was neither for nor against, 
it was lukewarm, and the moving spirits of the 
land laughed it to scorn. 

Still, in spite of opposition and seasons of 
great unpopularity, it forged ahead. God 
seems to love lines of greatest resistance, for 
only when forces are arrayed against him does 
his power show forth. Along these lines has 
it gone, till, gathered in one church meeting 
to-day, you can see princes, well-diggers, cab- 
inet secretaries, butchers, merchants, distin- 
guished literati, the poor, the rich, Joseph of 
Arimathza, blind Bartimzus, educationalists, 
students, clerks of the law department, ex- 
governors, vice-ministers, and in short people 
of every condition and station. Into all classes 
of society has the gospel gone, and bearing 
down all opposition, carried with it proofs of 
its power to save. 

In pioneer work there are, without question, 


Opposition 
Steadily 
Overcome 


Hardships 


Sitting on-the 
Heated Stone 
Floor 


Sleeping on the 
Heated Floor 


166 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


hardships, but there are also compensations 
great and wonderful. The writer can best il- 
lustrate what all other missionaries have passed 
through by telling a little of his own first ex- 
periences. What were the hardships? There 
are seven of them, complete and fully rounded 
out as to number. 

First, should be mentioned sitting all day on 
the heated stone floor. You ask, “Why not 
use a chair?” Because it would be as much 
out of place as if a Korean should call on you 
and, instead of sitting on a chair, should sit 
on the floor and talk up at you. It would put 
you out of touch at once with the very world 
you were endeavoring to get at. Let the reader 
try sitting cross-kneed for three hours at a 
stretch, if he would fully understand this para- 
graph. To some it becomes a veritable tor- 
ture-rack, knees and hip-joints and ankle bones 
are crying out against you. You rest this one 
and the others only scream the louder. There 
is nothing for it but a chair or to go out for a 
walk. Still the sitting life is a part of your 
calling, and in the early days it was absolutely 
necessary. 

Second, the sleeping. For those of us who 
have slept for some years as the Koreans do, 


PIONEER METHODS 167 


on the hot floor, it was practise in the science 
of being baked brown. On many a cold night 
the floor seemed at first grateful, but as the 
hours went by the room became a Dutch oven, 
and you were being cooked. All night the 
tossings and the tumblings would continue, 
mixed with fire and labored dreamings, the 
room stifled for want of ventilation, and the 
whole universe apparently in torment. 

Third, the food. Instead of fruit, cereals, 
bacon and eggs, a cup of coffee, you would be 
served with rice for breakfast, cabbage and 
turnips in salt water, dried fish shredded, red 
pepper soup, and other preparations, the odor 
thereof being strong. Epicurean-like, your 
whole being would long for a mutton-chop, 
pancakes, hot biscuits, ice-cream, and other 
favorite dishes, but in all the flavors of the 
busy day not one of these was present. 

Fourth, the crowds of men. How they 
would trample over you! To quote from The 
Vanguard: “On into the night his room was. 
the rendezvous for all classes. Men with Mon- 
gol thoughts and fetid breath sat cross-kneed 
about him, shouting all manner of useless ques- 
tions over and over, proposing that he measure 
his strength of arm with them, asking for his 


Food 


Crowds 


Vermin 


168 KOREA IN TRANSITION 


hat and boots to try on.” Frequently when 
night came three or four of these callers would 
stretch out on the floor of the seven by eight 
by ten room to sleep, the hottest end of the 
bake-oven being given to the foreigner as a 
mark of honor. Every door was closed and no 
chink of ventilation was allowed open lest 
Horangee, the tiger, come and eat you. These 
people were never unkind or impolite, but the 
endless crowds of men wore one’s soul down. 
You never seemed to make any headway. A 
new crowd would come, and all the old salu- 
tations and explanations would have to be gone 
over. Never before did we realize what the 
world would be without woman, no woman’s 
voice, no evidence of woman’s hand, none of 
the refinements of society that are seen only in 
the world of emancipated women, but only 
coarse-grown, greedy, sensual men, full of 
pride and empty egotism. 

Fifth, vermin. Where Buddha has had a 
hand and a hearing, there vermin exist and 
are glad. Some are large enough to be seen, 
some so small that you might mistake them for 
nothing. Like the cholera comma bacillus, they 
are not to be measured by a foot-rule, but it 
seems to me that they are more terrible than 


PIONEER METHODS 169 


an army with banners and field-guns. It would 
be quite improper to go into details of the fight. 
Suffice it to say that during those early years 
mountains of agony seemed to overwhelm one, 
whereas the cause was but the merest trifle, 
not large enough to put a pin through or fasten 
onto the cardboard of a natural history 
museum. 

Sixth, sickness and death. The loathsome, 
fearsome nature of disease is never seen till you 
go as a missionary to some benighted, idol- 
beridden land. There you see sickness in all 
its lurid colors. Just one example: I was to 
take a meeting at a neighboring house, and the 
master had come to show the way. He re- 
marked, “We have ‘pimples’ at our house just 
now, so the meeting will be all the better.”’ Just 
what kind of pimples possessed his house I 
did question, but did not guess. When I ar- 
rived, the wife came out to greet me. All were 
so glad that the moksa was to lead the meet- 
ing. Pimples! I should think so! There sat 
the wife’s brother at the doorway just covered 
with smallpox pustules. My first impulse was 
to go away, but on second thought that did not 
seem satisfactory. God had brought me, I 
must stay. We had the meeting. “Jesus walk- 


Sickness and 
Death 


Pagan and 
Christian Usage 


170 KoREA IN TRANSITION 


ing on the water’’ was the subject. The patient 
would sometimes cry, and then again he would 
stifle his agony, brighten up, and listen. “Sit 
over there,” said I, “there’s a draft here where 
I am sitting.” I was so thankful there was a 
draft. 

Death, ever present all the world over, how 
softened his grim visage is when associated 
with the name of Jesus, how awful when he 
appears alone. The writer still recalls one sum- 
mer long ago, May, 1889, when funeral prep- 
arations were being made before a neighbor- 
ing house. He made inquiry of An, his host: 
“T didn’t know that there was a death.” “Yes, 
the master of the house is dead; they will bury 
him.” “But when did he die? To-day when 
we were out?” “No, no, not to-day. He died 
before you came.” I had been there two 
months. They had a bier ornamented with 
dragons’ heads, painted in wild colors, that 
suggested skull and cross-bones. The funeral 
service was a fearful row, everybody was 
noisy, many were weeping, many were drunk. 
A more gruesome performance than that which 
I saw, over that horrible, unburied body, no one 
could imagine. To-day that same village sits 
as it did then, with background of mountain 


PIONEER METHODS 171 


and foreground of sea, but how changed! All 
is Christian, Sunday is a day of rest, and every 
house is represented at the service in the chapel. 
They have lived down old-fashioned death in 
that village and exchanged it for quiet sleep. 

Seventh, the language. This is a trial 
harder than the reader can well imagine. In 
a sense you have to take the place of a child 
and prattle in monosyllables, and say foolish 
things, and make no end of silly mistakes, and 
cover all your friends with confusion, over and 
over. You may be wise, and think great 
thoughts, but in actual experience you are less 
than the least. This humiliation lasts for a 
year or so, sometimes it lasts longer, sometimes 
it lasts forever and a day. One often prays, 
“O for the day of Pentecost, when even the 
illiterate Peter could soar like the eagle over 
the nations of the world!” but it comes not in 
that way. It is best that we learn little by little, 
and by a very humble pathway, but it is a hard- 
ship indeed. 

In missionary work, first and foremost, con- 
fidence must be established and the heart won. 
The missionary may be learned, may be hard- 
working and godly, may be earnest as John 
Knox, and indefatigable as Mr. Moody, but 


The Language 


First Secret in 
Missionary 
Work 


Other Secrets 


172 KoREA IN TRANSITION 


if the people do not love him, they will not 
listen to his doctrine. It is a terrible fact that 
there are some missionaries on the field who 
are not loved by the people. While unlovely 
and unloved, all they do is as wood, hay, and 
stubble. As in wireless telegraphy there must 
be harmony of note between despatcher and 
receiver, SO, ere messages to the soul pass, 
despatcher missionary and receiver Oriental 
must be in tune. What wonders you can do 
when the heart is won! The multitude may 
hold you in its grip, from dawn till sunset, 
still next day you are full of hope again. It 
is the missionary in tune with God and with 
the heart of the East who does the work. Let 
much emphasis be put on the right key as to 
the heart, for therein lies the secret. 

Every day come the crowds. What would 
the reader tell them first, these brand new 
hearers? “Jesus, who is he?” “How could 
God have a Son?” “The Bible? Who 
knows?” “Let’s read,” and little by little the 
work narrows itself down to reading together 
the New Testament. Here again is another 
secret of success. Argument is of no avail. 
Telling the whole story by the half hour to- 
gether counts little; but to sit down, offer a 


PIONEER METHODS R73 


prayer for God’s light and leading, and then 
read, means the entrance of the Word. An- 
other secret is to leave matters alone that you 
are not called upon to speak of. Read and 
pray. Get Jesus into the lost soul, and then an- 
cestor worship and rags and kitchen devils and 
filth and ignorance will dissipate, like the dark- 
ness when the sun shines over Camel Mountain 
and lights up our hill in the morning. This 
has been the way of the cross in Korea, not 
by street preaching, not by great crowds, not 
by spectacular effort, but in the little room 
seven by seven by ten, seated cross-kneed on 
the matting, with the Bible opened and some- 
body to read and pray with. 

Keeping time with the first stages of the 
work is the press. The toil and sweat and 
agony that accompanies the management of a 
Western printing plant in the Far Orient baffles 
description. There may be breaks, smashings, 
losings, pages with lines upside-down, but 
“Never mind,” says the Orient, “Reverse the 
book and read it down the other way, the 
thought is all right.” Gray hairs come out like 
snowbirds on a wintry day, and sit all round 
the superintendent’s ears, but he too has to keep 
heart in tune, be one with his blundering men, 


The Press 


Demand for 
Literature 


174 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


love them, and pray with them. That is the 
main part of the lesson. 

In Korea from the day of Rev. F, Ohlinger’s 
setting up the press till the present, when sev- 
eral large Japanese and Korean houses are es- 
tablished, what a work of grace has been done 
by this Methodist superintendent! No one can 
measure or calculate or guess in the least the 
extent to which his work has aided the procla- 
mation of the gospel. Not only the New Testa- 
ment and portions, like the Gospels, have gone 
out in thousands upon thousands, but tracts 
like “The Two Friends”, “The Peep of Day”, 
Pilgrim’s Progress, and similar writings. The 
struggle to have the printed page keep pace 
with the proclamation and the loud demand 
have gone on for twenty years, and to-day 
(1908) bookmen come, saying, “We are out 
of books, what are we going to do?” A change 
however has come about. If the Tract Society 
now fails to keep up the supply, individual 
Christians publish the books themselves. Re- 
cently the writer was asked for the manuscript 
of The Life of Martin Luther. “We must have 
it,” said this Christian friend, “and as the 
Tract Society is unable to publish it, I'll do so 
myself,” and thither went the manuscript. 


PIONEER METHODS 175 


Along with pioneer missionary effort went 
the translation of the Scriptures; and what a 
huge undertaking it is no one knows who has 
not tried it. Sixty stories of a life insurance 
building in New York City is not as big an 
undertaking. It takes about ten years to do it. 
If we think of all the digging necessary as a 
foundation on which to work, of every shovel- 
ful of paragraphs, of what each word means, 
sifted and weighed and valued and recorded, 
with malaria and weariness all round about, it 
reminds one of digging the Panama Canal. A 
Panama Canal it is, this New Testament, link- 
ing two great oceans, the ocean of God’s bound- 
less love with the immeasurable expanse of 
human need. 

When China was in the throes of Boxerdom, 
in 1900, we had just finished the New Testa- 
ment, and some of the refugees were present 
when the Hon. H. N. Allen, M. D., United 
States minister, made a speech and presented 
specially bound copies to the translators. 

Since then the Old Testament is under way 
and will in about a year more, we hope, be 
completed. Already Genesis, Exodus, Samuel, 
Kings, Psalms, Isaiah are on the market, and 
Koreans are reading about Joseph, Jonathan, 


Bible 
Translation 


Completion of 
New Testament 


Old Testament 
Translation 


Use of Hymns 


Bible Study 
Classes 


176 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


Elijah, and the wicked kings of Israel and 
Judah. 

Wherever the gospel goes, hymns spring up, 
glad hymns, pathetic hymns, hymns that win 
the wayward and the wandering. Among 
those most in use in Korea are “Jesus loves 
me” (“Ye-su na-rul sa-rang hao’), “Nothing 
but the blood” (“P’% pak-keut up-nai’), 
“Nearer, my God, to Thee” (‘“Ha-na-nim kat- 
ka-hi’”’), “Jerusalem, my happy home” (“Ye- 
ru-sal-lem na pok toin chip’). These are find- 
ing their way into huts that you have to bow 
down to crawl into, into high-class homes, into 
palaces, and the children are growing up with 
their vibrations in the air. The place that 
hymns have in the forward march of the gos- 
pel is worth noting, a place large and perma- 
nent. Thus far the foreign missionary has 
had much to do with the composition of 
Korean hymns, but later we shall have our 
Watts and Wesley, who will give us composi- 
tions that will stand like “Rock of Ages.” 

The foreign missionary is, as we have seen, 
a starter and director of the work rather than 
the one who carries it out. Where his influence 
is seen to greatest advantage is in the classes 
for Bible study. These meet at various times 


Ivey HospitaL, SoNGpDo 


PIONEER METHODS 74 


during the year, the men at their suitable sea- 
son and the women when it best suits them. 
For the two weeks or so that they are together 
these selected Christians are taught and helped 
in Bible study. They are full of questions as 
to the meaning of this and that in Gospels and 
Epistles, and the application of it to every-day 
life. While engaged in this work, they pray 
together, and enter into the business of it as 
men do into a joint-stock company of this 
world’s affairs. 

When the measure of mission work is taken 
for the wide mission fields of the world, many 
a medical man will come in for the wreath of 
laurel. In Korea this will be true. The first 
missionary to be appointed was a medical man, 
the first to arrive on the field was a medical 
man, the first great loss was a medical man. 
The medical missionary’s life is a ceaseless war 
waged against typhus, and leprosy, and small- 
pox, and cholera, and all the fearsome heritage 
that has scourged humanity. His calling is 
to go into the most noisome dens of suffering, 
where poverty, crime, ignorance, and super- 
Stition sit huddled together, to go in with 
kindly expression and heart full of love for all 
mortals. 


The Medical 
Missionary 


An Ambassador 
of Cause and 
Effect 


Groundless 
Oriental 
Inferences 


178 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


The question is sometimes asked as to just 
what place the medical missionary takes in the 
work of missions, and the answer is usually 
that he helps win the people. This is true, 
though it is also true that any one can win 
the people who loves them and is unselfish. But 
outside of this the medical worker has a distinct 
sphere of his own. He is the man who helps 
break down the ignorance and unreasonable- 
ness of non-christian nations. He is the am- 
bassador of the law of cause and effect that 
the Orient has been out of touch with for all 
these ages. He teaches the first lessons in 
hygiene; he shows the difference between rags 
and royal robes; he is the representative of the 
advanced world of Christian thought, and no 
mission can afford to be without him. 

Even Chang Chih-tung, the distinguished 
man of China, only a few years ago attributed 
a cancerous formation on his face to a roadway 
that had been cut through an ancient hill near 
his home, and he straightway had it filled up. 
All down through Korean history we read how 
this and that phenomenon of nature was fol- 
lowed by this and that catastrophe in life. I 
read of 80 A. D. in the Sam Guk Sa (Korean 
History): “In the fourth moon a great wind 


PIONEER METHODS 179 


blew down the East Gate of the city, and in 
the eighth moon the king died.” “Sure,” says 
the old-time Eastern reader, just as we would 
when we read, “John Robinson Smith jumped 
from an express train, fell on his neck, and 
broke it.” 

The medical missionary turns his guns on 
this world and pounds its fortifications might- 
ily. Yet he has to be patient withal, for per- 
haps while he is prescribing for the sick man 
the latest scientific output of a drug company, 
Grandma Kim, behind the house under the 
rear thatch, is brewing a decoction of deers’ 
horns and ginseng to mix in, and when the 
man recovers “the deers’ horns did it.” 

The medical man fights dirt and filth, and in 
every direction we see them giving away and a 
new and cleaner order coming in. We may 
even have a shower of meteors these days with- 
out associating it with a plague of cholera or 
some other dire thing to follow. 

The medical man, too, falls like the soldier 
in the hot assault, and we comrades of his pass 
on over the way he has opened. Western 
medicine planted strongly in Seoul, in Syen 
chun, in Song chin, in Fusan, in Mokpo, takes 
in the center and four corners of the land. In- 


Medical 
Missionary has 
Need of 
Patience 


Fights for | 
Cleanliness 


Falls Likea 
Soldier 


Graduates in 
Medicine 


The Hospital 


Woman's Need 


180 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


terspersed between, are eight hospitals or more 
and dispensaries. 

Last summer, at the Severance Hospital, 
which is successor to the institution originally 
founded by Drs. Allen and Heron and since 
carried on by Avison and Hirst, seven stu- 
dents graduated in medicine and surgery. 
Prince Ito was present to give the diplomas, 
and the government granted them licenses to 
practise as graduates in medicine. What an 
advance since the days of the plaster of excre- 
ment, or the long needle that was driven 
through skin, flesh, muscles, veins, till it found 
a bone to impinge upon and make the patient 
see stars! 

It is a joy to the clerical man to go through 
the hospital and see these suffering sojourners 
of the yellow Orient cared for by doctors, 
nurses, and assistants who are wise enough 
and good enough to wait on King Edward or 
President Taft. The harelips that have been 
sewed up, the stiff joints that have been set 
free, the tumors that have been removed, the 
bones that have been put right, the foul dis- 
eases that have been driven away, all speak for 
the coming of the gospel. 

Among the most beneficent of all Christian 


WAOAG “IVLIdSO}{ AONVUAAUS 


a 


‘J 
rh 


PIONEER METHODS 181 


efforts that of medical work for women surelv 
stands high. The woman’s life, heretofore 
weighted by all manner of oppression, and 
impressed into the confines of the inner room, 
was left at the mercy of shade and “shadow’’! 
diseases. Only on the arrival of the woman 
physician, side by side with the evangelistic 
worker, did hope spring up. As a result of 
the work of the Methodist lady physicians and 
nurses, Drs. Cutler and Ernsburger and Misses 
Edmunds and Morrison, do we find not only 
grateful patients, who have been cured. and 
taught, but skilful graduates, who recently 
gave an exhibition of the duties of the trained 
nurse before a gathering of the consular body, 
Japanese officers, and army surgeons. 

A large hospital has just been built inside 
of the East Gate of Seoul, that will care for 
hundreds and thousands of needy women. 
Women’s medical work is one of the great 
factors in the spread of the gospel. 

A theological school has recently been started 
by the Presbyterians in Ping yang, and another 
by the Methodists in Seoul. This marks an- 


1 Shadow, contrasted with light, is one of the original em- 
blems of the negative in nature, earth in contrast to heaven, 
darkness to light, woman to man. 


Hospital for 
Women 


Theological 
Schools 


Prison-lighted 
Lives 


182 KoREA IN TRANSITION 


other stage of the work. In these schools are 
the choice men of the land, gathered for study 
at set times of the year. The course is adapted 
to the stage of the work, the attainments of 
the men, and the needs of the time. Under 
the leadership of Dr. Jones of Seoul, and Dr. 
Moffett of Ping yang, men who have read far 
into the soul problems of Korea, this part of 
the work becomes a strong hope for the fu- 
ture. In fact, the missionary’s life grows into 
the life of a teacher of the few rather than a 
herald to the many. While this short notice 
only is given of our theological schools, seeing 
that they have just begun, on the wide range 
of the horizon that marks the coming history 
of the Church they occupy perhaps the most 
important section. 

Still, there are other theological schools that 
have played a great and important part in the 
work of missions, and one of the best of all 
was the old Kamok or Criminal Prison. 
Filthy, cold, infected by all the germs that 
flourish in the East, crawling with vermin, 
associated with crime, torture, and horrible 
death, and yet a pok-dang or house of blessing, 
it has become. The old emperor in his days 
of absolute power locked in this pesthouse Yi 


PIONEER METHODS 183 


Seung-man, Yu Song-jun, Kim In, Yi Sang- 
jai, Yi Won-gung, Kim Chung-sik. He 
thought that these men meant reform along 
Western lines, and they did. Without trial 
by judge or jury, they were shut behind 
the bars; some of them wore the cangue 
collar and worked in the chain-gang. Here 
they suffered from cold, from ill treatment, 
from the constant fear of execution, though 
they had the proud blood of a long ancestry 
in their veins, and a deadly desire for 
revenge in the heart. They hoped for 
escape, for the opportune moment, the keen 
knife, for accounts squared for time and 
eternity, when all unexpectedly, there came 
into their company the New Testament, Bun- 
yan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, and some of Moody’s 
tracts in Chinese. Their prison, visited regu- 
larly by the Rev. and Mrs. A. D. Bunker, 
became first an inquiry room, then a house 
_ Of prayer, then a chapel for religious exercises, 
then a theological hall, and when the course 
was completed, God let them all out of prison 
and set them to work. With their high social 
standing, with their political influence, with 
their superior training in Chinese, these men 
have become the first Christian leaders of the 


Testings 


184 KorREA IN TRANSITION 


capital. The year 1909 found Yi Seung-man 
in America, taking a postgraduate course at 
Harvard; Yu Song-jun is a consistent Chris- 
tian in the service of the government; Yi Sang- 
jai, formerly Secretary of the Cabinet, and 
once Secretary of Legation in Washington, 
District of Columbia, is Director of Religious 
work in the Seoul Young Men’s Christian 
Association, and Kim In is General Secretary 
of the native branch of that organization, 
while Yi Won-gung, one of the most noted 
Confucian scholars living, is an elder in the 
Seoul Presbyterian Church; and Kim Chung- 
sik, once chief of police of Seoul, is now in 
charge of religious work among Korean stu- 
dents in Tokio. Not established under either 
Methodist or Presbyterian auspices, this old 
unwashed Kamok prison has been one of our 
best helps. When such a means as this can be 
used for God’s glory, it teaches one to go 
slowly and prayerfully and wait to see what 
he will do. 

The testing quantity has entered so deeply 
into all parts of the work here that it deserves 
mention. Christians who have become so with- 
out a fiery trial are of no use. This would 
account for the lack of influence seen in the 


PIONEER METHODS 185 


lives of those who have gone abroad, become 
Christians, and returned. As a rule they are a 
hindrance rather than a help. Why is this? 
It is explained on the ground that they have 
had no Kamok Prison in their Christian ex- 
perience. It has been all easy sailing. They 
have gone to America, have met Christians, 
have been helped by Christians, have become 
Christians, have been spoken well of as Chris- 
tians, have lived with Christians, all as easy 
for the Oriental as for the log that floats down 
the stream, but on return home, when the test- 
ing-day comes, and they meet no Christians in 
their circle, are spoken ill of, are received 
coldly by society, have to live in their old 
world with no fighting qualities to sustain 
them, they are carried back into heathenism 
like Kipling’s Hindu. A Korean Christian is 
not made without many strokes of the ham- 
mer, much heating of the furnace, and many 
testings of the metal during the long hours of 
the day. A place like the Kamok Prison has 
proved a much better Christian school than 
the delights and hospitalities of an American 
or an English home. 

A house of prayer for all Eastern peoples is 
what God apparently means to make of this 


A Gateway to 
China 


186 


KorEA IN TRANSITION 


little peninsula. By small degrees already we 
see that across its border are going messages 
and influences that are to help great China to 
awake from her opium sleep of ages to see and 
to hear God calling, and when China awakes 
the world is won. 


SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VI 


AIM: To APPRECIATE THE DEVELOPMENT OF MISSIONARY 
Work IN KorEA 


I. The Native Church and the Public. 


I. 


2.* 


4. 


ste 


What are the advantages and what the disad- 
vantages of having it rs to profess 
Christianity ? 

If persecution is an ivan to the native 
Church, what substitute for it would your 
recommend in a time of peace? 

If you were a missionary, would you do any- 
thing to dispel the notion that Christianity 
was a religion mainly for the common people? 
How would you, as a missionary, act if Chris- 
tianity became for a time very popular? 
What should be the attitude of the mission- 
aries toward Korean patriotism? 


II. Missionary Methods. 


6. 


In view of the hardships mentioned in the 
chapter, what sort of training would you 
recommend for a prospective Korean mis- 
sionary? 

Did the missionary do the right thing to sey 


II. 


I2. 


13 


14. 


15. 


16.* 


Liv 


18.* 


19.* 


PIONEER METHODS 187 


at the meeting where there was a man with 
smallpox? 

Why is it so important for the missionary 
to have a thorough command of the ver- 
nacular? 

If you were a missionary beginning work, 
what methods would you follow in order to 
win the confidence of the people? 


Why is argument of so little use in missionary 
work? 

Why is it better not to begin by attacking 
superstition ? 

What are the relative advantages of chapel 
preaching and personal interviews? 

Why has reading been so effective with 
Koreans? ; 

If God wishes us to evangelize the world, why 
do you think he has put so many obstacles in 
our way? 

Try to imagine what Christianity would be 
like in this country if we were altogether with- 
out a Christian press or literature. 

Give the respective arguments for investing 
$50,000, in a hospital, or a college, or a press, 
in Korea. 

Which parts of the New Testament do you 
think it would be most difficult to translate 
into Korean, and why? 

If you were appointed to translate the Bible 
into Korean, what various kinds of preparation 
would you consider necessary? 

Arrange the things accomplished by the 
medical missionary in what seems to you the 
erder of their importance. 


188 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


eI 


Il. 


20. In just what way can he best dispel super- 
stition in treating’ a case? 

21. Why are theological schools so important on 
the foreign field? 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY. 
CHAPTER VI 


. Methods of Work. 


Gale: The Vanguard (passim). 

Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, ch. XI. 

Underwood: Fifteen Years Among the Topknots, 
PP. 130-132, 234, 235. 

Underwood: The Call of Korea, ch. IV. 


Medical Work. 


Underwood: Fifteen Years Among the Topknots, 
PP. 133-145, 305, 306. 

Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, pp. 142-144. 

Gale: Korean Sketches, ch. V. 


THE RESPONSE OF KOREA 


The class-leader here, who is a well-to-do farmer, so ar- 
ranged his farm work this year as to devote practically his 
whole time, without pay, to church work. he result has 
been an increase of about fifty per cent. There are two 
churches, with Christians in eight other villages. The mem- 
wei including probationers, is 135, who with 112 other 
attendants make a total of 247.... At another point we have 
four churches, with three prayer rooms, and Christians in 
some thirty villages. Persecution at one church brought 
with it the stoning of two helpers, and, through their fidelity, 
victory, and an increase of over one hundred per cent. Here 
we have 306 members, including probationers, and 120 other 
attendants, making 426 in all. . . . During the wonderful 
tevival that shook part of Korea the past year, until not one 
tile remained on top of another of the three thousand year-old 
devil-house, the thing that caused more remarks among the 
missionaries than anything else was the wonderful way in 
which the Koreans prayed for each other and the remarkable 
answers to these prayers. Not only in prayers, but in works 
as well, are the rank and file of the Korean Christians instant 
in season and out. I dare say there is no land in the world 
where there is so much personal and unpaid—in money— 
hand to hand, and heart to heart, evangelistic work done as 
in Korea. During the revival, when strong men were in 
utter despair, crying out in agony under conviction of sin, 
most beautiful was the way others, who had gone through 
the struggle and come out victorious, would go to their 
brother, put their arm about him and lead him into the 
light. The wonder of this is the greater when we remember 
that the Korean gives little expression to personal affection. 
. .. Early one morning as I was going out from Chinnampo 
I met one of the Christians coming in. They were having 
a week of prayer, and as he had pledged himself not to go 
empty-handed he had been out to a nearby village getting 
his man for the night. At the time of the women’s class in 
Ping-yang women who had received new experiences of sins 
pardoned and fulness of peace and joy in the new birth, 
came to me with tears pleading that I might go or send some- 
one to their church that all might have this new experience 
and live. In some cases these women themselves were the 
means of bringing the revival to their local church. 


—¥F. Z. Moore 


190 


VII 
THE RESPONSE OF KOREA 


Many years of testing by the question, 
“Where did you first hear the gospel? at 
church? on the street? at prayer-meeting? by 
reading the Bible?’ brings the characteristic 
response: “No, I heard it first from Brother 
Kim, or Brother Pak, or Brother Choi; he 
came to my house and we read together.” 
From lip to lip and heart to heart it has gone 
to the distant valleys on the Manchu border, 
to the windings of the Tumen, to the whirling 
tides, and rocks, and cross streams of the 
southern archipelago, from east to west all 
over the land. God will bless Korea, for if ever 
a land exemplified the Christian principle of 
passing it on, it is this same country. 

“The Korean Christians are unceasingly 
active. A tract is accepted, a book is bought, 
a meeting is attended, an impression made, a 
desire to know more aroused; then follow 
regular attendance, conversion, and entrance 
into the Church. But they do not stop here. 
Acquaintances, friends, and relatives are 

Igt 


Pass It On 


Native 
Christians 
Ever Active 


192 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


sought, importuned, and reasoned with on 
righteousness, temperance, and judgment to 
come. Some of the leaders are making noble 
sacrifices for the spread of the Word. In the 
cold of winter and in the heat of summer; in 
the crowded city and at the country market; 
in the library of the Confucian scholar and in 
the comfortless wayside inn; in the lonely 
country farmhouse and in the privacy of the 
inner room, where the women are secure from 
molestation, they bear glad and cheerful testi- 
mony to the power of Christ to save from sin. 
They receive abuse, accept ostracism, endure 
cruel mockings and even bonds and imprison- 
ments, in order to obtain a good report through 
faith. , 
= “From the early days of the mission there 
has prevailed among the Korean converts a 
very high conception of the privileges and 
responsibilities of Church-membership. A 
Korean Christian is always more than a mere 
Church-member; he is a worker giving his 
services freely and gladly to extend the knowl- 
edge of Christ among his neighbors. It has 
not been an unusual thing for a pastor of a 
local church to have not less than one third of 
the entire membership of his church on the 


SINAGALS ANGTIOD SINGGNLIS ALINIAIG] 


Tue RESPONSE OF KorEA 193 


streets on a Sunday afternoon engaged in 
house to house visitation and personal work 
among their unconverted neighbors.” 

Thus has the work gone on and on. The 
native Christian has proved himself a master 
hand at passing on the divine message. No 
fiery cross of ancient Scotland ever circled the 
hills with more persistent rapidity than the 
Good News has gone throughout Korea. 
Each has heard from a brother, from a sister, 
and like propagates like; oats, oats; barley, 
barley, never wheat, pumpkins; nor goose- 
berries, pomelos. One of the matters to fear 
and pray over on the mission field is that a 
defective Christian will lead others to the faith 
who will be similarly defective. Still, although 
Korea has her share of imperfect saints, there 
are among them a wonderful group of single- 
hearted, simple-minded, earnest, faithful Chris- 
tians. 

“The Korean not only memorizes Scripture ; 
he puts it into practise. One day there came 
into one of the mission stations a sturdy Chris- 
tian from the north. After the usual greet- 
ings, he was asked the purpose of his visit. 
His reply was: ‘I have been memorizing some 
verses in the Bible, and have come to recite 


The Work 
Extends 


Doers of the 
Word 


Ideal for the 
Native Church 


194 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


them io you.’ He lived a hundred miles away, 
and had walked all that distance, traveling four 
nights—a long stroll to recite some verses of 
Scripture to his pastor, but he was listened to 
as he recited in Korean, without a verbal error, 
the entire Sermon on the Mount. He was told 
that if he simply memorized it, it would be a 
feat of memory and nothing more; he must 
practise its teachings. His face lighted up 
with a smile as he promptly replied: ‘That is 
the way I learned it. I tried to memorize it, 
but it wouldn’t stick, so I hit on this plan. I 
would memorize a verse, and then find a 
heathen neighbor of mine and practise the 
verse on him. Then I found it would stick.’ 
Imagine this humble Korean Christian in a 
heathen city, amid the hills of the peninsula, 
taking that matchless moral code and, precept 
by precept, putting it into practise in his life 
with his neighbors. Is it any wonder that the 
Korean Church grows?” 

The ideal for the native Church toward 
which all missionary agencies are striving has 
been that of a body which shall be self-propa- 
gating and self-governing and self-supporting. 
A striking testimony as to the way in which the 
Korean Church is realizing this ideal comes 


y AF Wy Tibi 


CuurcH Buitt By KorEANS 


MetHopist CHURCH, WONSAN 


THE RESPONSE OF KOREA 195 


from the report of Dr. eBueevelee, of Syen 
chun, written in 1906: 

“Last year in our station of Syen chun we 
had 6,507 adherents; this year there are 
11,943. From whence the 5,436 conversions 
during the twelve months?—an average of 
453 per month. Could this be the result of 
our small band of missionaries? Could it be 
from the $72 spent on local evangelists during 
the year? The Koreans have 15 native evan- 
gelists giving their whole time to the work and 
receiving their support from the native Church. 
The Christians themselves have pledged a 
certain number of days of voluntary preach- 
ing or special definite evangelistic effort, the 
sum of which has exceeded 8,000 days. There 
have been 1,164 baptisms during the year, 
almost one hundred per month,—an average 
of 22 every Sunday. Nor is that all, these one 
thousand one hundred and sixty-four people 
were Christians for over a year before they 
were baptized. At the end of a few months 
from conversion they were examined and at 
the expiration of twelve months more they 
were again examined. If the examination was 
good, and if the past year’s history was what 
a Christian’s ought to be, they were baptized. 


Self-propagatior 


Self-government 


Self-support 


196 KoREA IN TRANSITION 


The 5,436 converts of this year will be up for 
examination and baptism next year. In the 
face of these facts I think we can call the 
Korean Church self-propagating. 

“In our station we have 78 churches and, 
as I said, 11,943 Christians. These churches 
are scattered over an immense territory, with 
picked men (unsalaried) over the individual 
churches. The churches are made up into 
circuits or groups of churches, 13 in all, with 
13 assistant pastors or helpers over them. 
These 13 helpers are beholden to four clerical 
missionaries, two of whom are on furlough 
this year, and one of the others is yet studying 
the language. Could one man adequately care 
for 78 churches with nearly 12,000 Christians? 
The Church in Korea comes pretty close to 
being self-governing. 

“One of the national characteristics of the 
Korean is poverty. The daily wage is from 
fifteen to forty cents, which would not be so 
bad were the living expense not at about the 
same figure. To ‘save up’ is beyond the ordi- 
nary Korean, yet look at the finances of the 
Church! In our station we have 56 day- 
schools with 1,192 pupils, receiving not one 
dollar of foreign money. There are 70 church 


THE RESPONSE OF KOREA 197 


buildings in our province into only two of 
which any foreign money has gone. There is 
not a native preacher or evangelist or teacher 
in our province on foreign salary, though three 
still receive a small portion of their salaries 
from foreign funds. The entire running ex- 
penses of our station including everything but 
$350 for the hospital and the missionaries’ 
salaries, as compared with the gifts of the na- 
tive Church, are as one to ten and sixty-two 
hundredths—in other words, for every Ameri- 
can dollar invested in them, our Koreans have 
put up ten dollars and sixty-two cents. We 
feel that our Church can well be called self- 
supporting. 

“From the first the Koreans were made to 
believe that the spread of the gospel and 
growth of the Church was their work rather 
than ours. We are here to start them and 
guide them in their efforts, but it is theirs to 
do the work. Whether a man believes or not, 
is his gain or loss and not ours. He is taught 
that his coming into the Church confers no 
favor upon the missionary nor enriches the 
kingdom, but is a decided benefit to himself. 
When-a man is converted, we rejoice not for 
our sakes, but for his. In employing workmen 


Appeal to Right 
Motives 


A True 
"Yoke-fellow”’ 


198 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


it is the work that tells, and if a heathen is 
found to give better service than a Christian 
the latter is dismissed and the former retained. 
So careful have we been along these lines that 
no one thinks of ripen into the Church for 
mercenary motives.” 

Another testimony comes from Di George 
Heber Jones: “From the earliest years of the 
mission, the Koreans have been taught that 
the final and complete evangelization of their 
people rests with them, and that the purpose 
of the foreign missionary is to inaugurate the 
work and then codperate with Korean Chris- 
tians in extending it. This position has been 
accepted by the Korean Christians and the 
Korean type is that of a man who places all 
his posessions in the hands of the Lord for 
his work. A happy illustration of this occurred 
in our work in the north district. Dr. W. 
Arthur Noble led to Christ a sturdy specimen 
of the northern Korean. He was the first con- 
vert in his village, and his house was the first 
meeting-place. After awhile the village church 
grew too large for its quarters and put up a 
chapel of its own. Then there was a debt 
which had to be paid. There was no money 
with which to pay it, as the little group had 


THE RESPONSE OF KoREA 199 


exhausted their resources. This leader, how- 
ever, had one thing he could sell—his ox with 
which he did his plowing. One day he led it 
off to the market-place, sold it, and paid the 
debt on the church. The next spring when the 
missionary visited this village he inquired for 
the leader and was told he was out in the field 
plowing. He walked down the road to the 
field, and this is what he saw: holding the 
handles of the plow was the old, gray-haired 
father of the family, and hitched in the traces 
where the ox should have been were this Ko- 
rean Christian and his brother, dragging his 
plow through the fields that year themselves! 
Doubtless also there was another whom mortal 
eye could not see, with form like unto the Son 
of God, hitched in the yoke with these humble 
Korean Christians, making their burdens light 
and the yoke easy that year.” 

The Korean is a preacher of the gospel by 
a kind of spiritual instinct ; he knows and does 
this one thing only; he provides for his Church 
schools without a cent from the homelands; 
he writes now and publishes his own books; 
he gives up tobacco and other useless expend- 
iture to save for the gospel’s sake; he gives 
of his means a tenth or more; sometimes he 


Self-denying 
Giving 


Donation of 
Time 


200 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


gives all he has over a bare living. Last year, 
to give an example, the membership of Yun- 
mot-kol Church, Seoul, with income not one 
tenth of the ordinary city church at home, 
gave over ten dollars gold a member, or $3,850 
for 350 members. 

And what an example the Koreans have set 
the Christian Church all over the world in their 
donations of time for the Lord’s work! Their 
evangelistic effort has been systematic as well 
as eager. Opportunity is given at meetings 
for Christians to pledge a specified number of 
days during the coming year for work among 
their unconverted neighbors. This is in addi- 
tion to what is done on the Sabbath. Individ- 
uals have sometimes pledged several weeks 
during a single year. Then campaigns are 
mapped out, and in some cases whole regions 
have been systematically evangelized. These 
time donations are also much in evidence when 
church buildings are to be erected. Not only 
those in whose homes money is an infrequent 
and hasty visitor are glad to contribute their 
strength, but those more well-to-do, brought 
up to consider manual labor a thing that no 
gentleman would engage in, have put their 
hands to the saw and the shovel. It is not 


THE RESPONSE OF KOREA 201 


remarkable that such a Church should expe- 
rience a wonderful revival. 

It was in 1906 that the native Christians 
joined heart with the foreign missionaries in 
an earnest prayer that God in heaven would 
look down in mercy and give what the heart 
longed for, what the hungry soul needed, what 
the spirit craved for in its thirsty land. What 
did they want that they were in such unrest 
over? They had health, and peace, and com- 
fortable homes. They had friends, they had 
every evidence of blessing. A great Church 
had been gathered, what was the matter with 
them that they were in such an agony of 
distress ? 

It was in August that Dr. Hardie of Won- 
san came to Ping yang, and in telling of the 
work of grace that God had wrought in his 
own soul, he aroused more intense and deeper 
longing than ever. Mr. Lee writes: “He came 
and helped us greatly. . . . There was 
born of these meetings the desire that God’s 
Spirit would take complete control of our lives, 
and use us mightily in his service.” 

The old walls that had heard all the devil 
noises, that had seen the blasted hopes of east 
Asia for fifty centuries, heard now -prayers 


Longiags for 
Revival 


Deepening of 
the Movement 


Accumulating 
Power 


202 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


daily that knew no cessation. But it was like 
praying into space, for there was no wonderful 
manifestation, nor any special answer. Things 
were as they had always been. The same sun 
shone, the same gray earth and brown hills 
mocked them, the same birds made light of it. 
Why should they pray? Give it up and be 
happy. Thank God for his good gifts and 
blessings. Thank him for forgiveness. Thank 
him for a promised nome in heaven. Be 
reasonable! It may in the end reach fanaticism 
if we be not careful. But you may not reason 
with the swell of the ocean or the tidal wave. 
Some hidden power unseen lifts the mighty 
weight of water, and to try to stem it with 
our feeble words would be as wise as such 
reasonings with these praying souls. The 
months of autumn dragged by, the last of 
1906. Into 1907 the year was launched, and 
still daily groups gathered for prayer. From 
all points of the north land, too, came Chris- 
tians to the study class, seven hundred of them! 
What had they come for? To study the Bible, 
of course; to get hold of who Matthew was, 
and John, and the rest of them; to find what 
were the leading thoughts of Paul’s Epistles, 
and perhaps the Book of Revelation. They 


THE RESPONSE OF KOREA 203 


had walked, some of them, a hundred miles, 
some more, some less, carrying their rice on 
the back which was to serve as board while 
attending. It was quite the thing this going 
to Ping yang to study. They would sing 
hymns, and hear sermons, and rejoice and be 
glad, and go home and tell others about it. 
Now they are gathered, and when the evening 
meetings commence the great church is filled ; 
fifteen hundred people. Little did these 
country folk dream of what was before them. 
Had they seen all, doubtless many would have 
turned back, flying for their lives in fear and 
consternation. 

For several days the ordinary meetings were 
held, till at last came Sunday night to which 
all had looked forward with great hope and 
expectation. Dr. Baird took the service. 
Under his leadership they expected to win 
what they hoped for, but instead it was a dry 
tasteless meeting. All the powers of Satan 
seemed to be against them. “Dead?” said 
Keel, “Oh you never experienced anything 
like. it, the whole place was just whing with 
nothingness. Some tried to confess, some tried 
to pray. It would not do, and the meeting dis- 
persed and went home.” Intensified in their 


The Crisis 


Coming ofthe 
Spirit 


Ajl Enlisted 


204 KoreA IN TRANSITION 


longings by this defeat, the missionaries and 
the native leaders gathered with redoubled 
earnestness in prayer. Something was needed, 
something within the possibility of attain- 
ment, something that must be won at all 
costs, this answer that would respond to 
the accumulated longings of the past months 
must come. There was nothing else in life, 
no other objective point, just this and this 
only. It was God’s to give, and the time 
had come. They would keep on. To stop 
was impossible. Let everything be for- 
gotten but just to pray. Let heart and soul 
and mind enter, for the stake is none less than 
God himself, and the conditions involved are 
all the eternities. 

That night they met again, Jan. 14, 1907. 
It was a great meeting and a wonderful Pres- 
ence seemed imminent. “We all felt that 
something was coming,” said Mr. Lee. Under 
a canopy of united audible prayer the whole 
meeting became electrified; “the Spirit of God 
seemed to descend.” Man after man arose, 
confessed his sins, broke down, and wept. 


_, Until 2.00 a. M. the meeting continued with 


confession, weeping, and praying. 
Into this marvelous experience moved the 


THE RESPONSE OF KOREA 205 


whole community, native as well as foreign. 
Hereafter at the noon prayer gatherings new 
hope had come, but also fear, awe, and wonder 
at the mighty mystery overshadowing them. 
It was the next night, and Keel was on hand 
to speak. ‘From the first it was not Keel’s 
face”, said Elder Cheung In-no to me. Keel 
was once stone-blind, is partially blind still, 
but here was a face of great majesty and 
power ; a face on fire with purity and holiness. 
It was Jesus, it was not Keel. He spoke of 
John the Baptist, and how he called on men 
to repent and confess. There were no fashion- 
able church joys in this gathering, but strange 
intimations of death and terror. The flash- 
ings of Sinai were over and about them. 
“There was no escape,” said Cheung, “God 
was calling. An awful fear of sin inex- 
perienced before settled over us. How to 
shake it off and escape was the question. 
Some did run away but only to come back in 
more intense distress than ever, with death in 
the soul and written deep-lined on the face. 
‘O God, what shall I do? If I make my bed 
in hell, thou art there; if I take the wings of 
the morning and flee, even there dost thou 
follow me.’”” Thus these hundreds gathered 


Message 
Through Keel is 
**Confess”’ 


206 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


under the fearful pall of conviction. The day 
of judgment had come, and squirm and dodge 
as they would, there was no escape, none 
whatever. It was death; die they must. At 
the sound of the preacher’s voice and in face 
of the conscious presence of a great and awful 
God, what were they to do? And yet they 
could not confess; to unveil the secrets of the 
past would be shame unspeakable, and social, 
material, eternal ruin. They would say, “I 
am undone. I am a lost man,” and let it rest. 
Some did try this but found no relief, more 
fearful than ever were the pent-up agonies of - 
the soul. Name it they must and so rid the 
breast forever. Keel, in this moment of inspi- 
ration, was to the crowd as John the Baptist. 
“Confessing their sins.” Confess was the 
word that he was compelled to say, and con- 
fess was the act they were compelled to do. 
It was a life and death struggle, every man 
with the angel on the banks of the Jabbok. 
All the reasonings of the heart came in to 
restrain them. “It will defile the ears of the 
hearers if I confess.” “It will disgrace my 
family.” “It will socially ruin me.” “It will 
hurt the Church.” “I'll die, but I can’t 
confess.” 


THE RESPONSE OF KOREA 207 


Pastor K. C. Pang was present, and two No Escape 
years later, when telling the writer, said: “It 
was a great sign and wonder, just as though 
Jesus were present right there, and there was 
no escape. I saw some struggling to get up, 
then falling back in agony. Others again 
bounded to their feet to rid their soul of some 
long-covered sin. It seemed unwise that such 
confessions be made, but there was no help 
for it. We were under a mysterious and awful 4 
power, helpless—missionaries as well as 
natives.” 

A wave of prayer would then take the as- * Mother's 

sembled multitude, and all would join at once, 
mingling their petitions with cries of agony. 
Then in a cessation this one and that one would 
arise, and calling for mercy tell of the burden 
of the soul. One, a woman, had in the Japan- 
China war, escaping for her life with her 
child on her back, found it impossible to carry 
so heavy a burden. She then dashed the child 
against a tree, killed it, and ran. She had 
repented, had given her heart to God, but here 
was this awful deed returned upon her, and 
out it must come. 

Another had found a Japanese pocket-book Restitution of 


Money 


which contained six hundred yen ($300 


Surrender for 
Punishment 


208 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


gold). He did not know to whom it belonged, 
and no one came to claim it, so he had used 
the money. But now it was upon him like all 
the fiends of Buddha. Out it came, and 
restoration had to be made, while those con- 
gregated, with eyes starting out of their heads, 
listened. 

Another, years before, had been, like Barab- 
bas, a robber. All the dark deeds of that time 
were on him, and now, like the rending of his 
soul, out they came. Immediately he gave 
himself up to the police and was locked up in 
jail. 

One of my best friends, an elder in the Pres- 
byterian Church, was there. He said that the 
solemnity of the meetings was beyond words 
to describe, something terrible, and yet one 
was impressed by the fact that it was right 
and true and holy. Years before he said he 
had paid off a debt and received a clear receipt, 
but in the paying he had not met all the 
requirements. He had taken advantage of 
one of the interested parties being dead to 
have it settled easier for himself. Said he: 
“This came back on me like a whirlwind, and 
the awfulness of the deed was like a lost 
eternity. I could not escape, so in tears and 


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Brs_E TRAINING INSTITUTE, PING YANG 


PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PING YANG 


THE RESPONSE OF KorREA 209 


contrition I had to rise and tell it to my 
shame and resolve to make restitution. Then 
a peace, a strange, sweet, indescribable peace, 
such a feeling as the heart had never known 
before, seemed to possess me.” 

Another friend whom I had long known, 
who had fallen into sin, fallen after being a 
Christian, had covered it up and hidden it 
away, was there. He had resolved never 
to fall again, and no man would know. He 
loathed himself for having done so badly, 
and had told others that he was a miser- 
able sinner. He attended the meetings and 
sat through several, his face strained and 
deathly, his heart. within him appalled at 
the prospect. At last it was confess or 
die, and with one superhuman effort he was 
upon the platform before those hundreds 
of people. He told all. “Was there ever 
such a sinner as 1? My God! My God! 
Have mercy on my soul!” For a time it 
seemed as though he would die. He beat the 
hard wooden flooring till his hands bled, he 
shrieked and begged for mercy. “Is this what 
sin is?” said the awe-stricken multitudes. 
“We never knew it was so awful. We had 
thought it a trifle, but, behold, here is what 


Making Bare the 
Deepest Sia 


210 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


God thinks.” This friend came out of the 
fiery trial cleansed and purified. So was the 
whole church lifted up into the third heaven 
to hear words that no man might utter. 

anes i Missionaries were alike caught in the power 
of it, and what a solemn rededication of life’s 

} service to the Highest took place no outsider 

will ever know. 

aii naa One of the striking services was illustrated 
by Keel’s being tied by a rope and held. He 
represented thus the bondage and power of 
sin. How he struggled to get away, but the 
rope held him! At last, at last, in his agony 
it gave way, and he rushed forth free. 
“Hallelujah, I am free!’ This was the note 
of it, and so after each confession there 
followed joy, great joy, joy unspeakable, joy 
that the possessor could not tell about, joy 
that no man ever dreamed of. 

fe als This city of Ping yang used to be considered 
the most hopeless part of Korea. It had been 
a veritable cage of evil birds from all time. 
Among’ spirit-worshiping, idolatrous Koreans 
Ping yang was the vilest of the vile; and yet 
now everywhere praying was heard, weeping, 
singing. The world had gone mad over a 
religion that the fathers had never heard of. 


THE RESPONSE OF KOREA 211 


High up on the heights of the city a church 
bell marked, “Ring till Jesus comes,” was 
calling attention to the business of the hour, 
which was to repent, get right with God, 
restore, live straight. 

The boys in the middle school, modern- 
day young men, who had spent years in 
Western study, had filled up on politics and 
were ready to sacrifice anything in behalf of 
their nation, were hushed by this mystery. 
Elder Kim Chan-sung, who led in their meet- 
ings, told me that when they met there was 
silence as if no man were present, but that 
suddenly when the name of Jesus was men- 
tioned the whole place was electrified by the 
spirit of conviction. One can never tell it. It 
is wrapped away, recorded on the sensitive 
register that will come forth on the great day 
when all accounts are settled. 

Little children were in no wise exempt. 
Something told them, wee tots though they 
were, that God had a reckoning on hand with 
sin. Many of them with the clearer eyesight 
of the child saw wonderful visions up in the 
heavenly places. Many wept over their little 
wayward ways and went and told father and 
mother, and asked forgiveness. Some children 


Effect Among 
Boys 


Even Reaches 
Little Children 


Joyful 
Intercession 


212 KOREA IN ‘LRANSITION 


whose parents were unbelievers, went home 
and in tears begged them to come to Jesus. 
Helper Kim Ik-too of Sin chun, twenty-five 
miles from Ping yang, told of children who, 
when they asked their parents to give their 
hearts to God, were soundly beaten. “What 
rubbish is this you dare talk to us?” said the 
irate father, but it only made the children all 
the more earnest in their prayers. Beating 
would not stop them; glaring at them Orien- 
tal fashion was of no use; threatening to kill 
them only increased their zeal; in some cases 
the parents said, “Well I'll be smitten if this 
doesn’t beat everything,” put their fingers in 
their ears, and ran. In other cases they yielded 
and bowed down in a similar confession and 
worship. 

For two weeks school studies were laid 
aside and the time given up to prayer. After 
all the sins, from murder to small spites and 
bickerings, had been confessed and put away, 
some sweet angel seemed to come and clothe 
the lads with quietness. In the ineffable 
purity of the wake of this storm, prayers were 


pales out for others. All day long was too 


hort to pray. Formerly it had been tiresome 
to weather through a single prayer-meeting 


Upper CLAss, PING YANG THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL, PING YANG 


THE RESPONSE OF KorEA 213 


hour, now meals were forgotten in the joy of 
intercession. 

The range of the influence too was one of 
the marvels. Old conservative Koreans who 
had drunk deep of Confucius and had wor- 
shiped every conceivable god, whose pride of 
spirit made them unapproachable, were among 
the broken-hearted and the contrite. Women 
who had been victims of every vile circum- 
stance of life, were given heavenly vision and. 
purity. Little children prayed the night 
through and saw wonders that Joel said some 
children were to see. Western missionaries, 
trained in other lands and formed of other 
human flesh, were likewise brought low down. 
They do not say much about it to-day and 
advertise it not at all, but they do emphatically 
declare that it was one of God’s great wonders, 
and that they expect to see nothing like it till 
the gates of paradise unfold and God himself 
is with us. 

Japanese too were blessed. Mr. Murata, a 
Methodist pastor, who had seen actual hostil- 
ities in the late war, and had been decorated 
for distinguished service, was present, and in 
the abundant blessing said in his broken Eng- 
lish, “Oh tanks, tanks, tanks! Had I not 


\ 


Japanese 
Pestimony—The 
City Canvassed 


214 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


come, I had not known to be fulfilled with the 
Spirit.” As one result, the whole city of 
50,000 inhabitants was mapped out and every 
man heard the gospel from some earnest heart 
blessed to overflowing. 

To all parts of the land word had gone, and 
here and there similar manifestations occurred, 
From the old city of Seoul went a delegation 
asking for Keel; that he should come and 
speak to them, dear blind Keel! Led through 
the streets of the capital, he takes command 
of the meetings. What a thrill of influence 
accompanied, what deep and lasting results 
followed, even as conservative a man as Dr. 
W. D. Reynolds whole-heartedly acknowl- 
edges. Mr. Yi Chang-jik, for fifteen years a 
Bible translator and Christian writer, followed 
these meetings with the keenest of interest. 
He had no use for hysteria. “Besides,” said 
he, “Koreans are inclined to make a habit of 
such extravagances and to think them real.” 
But Yi was brought to his knees in a single 
meeting, and then went to Keel saying, “Please 
pray for me.” “I watched Keel,” said he, 
“was in the room with him. He seemed to 
pray all night, pray all night and then speak 
three or four times a day, led here and there 


THE RESPONSE OF KoREA 215 


by the hand, and never seemed to be tired. 
His words were like a prophet’s risen from the 
dead, none could withstand them.” In Seoul 
also many repented and flocked to the meet- 
ings. To this day permanent and lasting 
results go on and on. 

Wider than Korea have the influences 
extended. Sometimes we say, “Would that 
some colossal force might lift China; would 
that God might get under China and break her 
up forever;’ with her submerged millions, 
alive and not alive, human and yet hardly 
human, sane and yet insane, filled with all of 
hell and almost none of heaven, dense as 
armor-plate in the matter of conscience and 
soul. What can save China? Can poor 
humbled Korea count for anything in the lift- 
ing of China’s millions? In Mukden, Man- 
churia, they had heard of great revivals in the 
land of Korea. Two elders would come and 
see. But they came too late, and the meetings 
were over. Ping yang was quiet, there were 
no special gatherings, and the old world had 
returned. Why had they come so late? 
What made their mission impossible was the 
fact that they could not speak Korean, and no 
one in Ping yang could speak Chinese. But 


Chinese Seeking 
Light 


Prayer Together 


Prof, Brown on 
the Manchurian 
Revival 


216 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


they had come Chinese-like all out of sense 
and season. We are told that they called first — 
on some non-christian Chinese merchant and 
asked if there were any Yesoo Chow (Chris- 
tians) in Ping yang. “Plenty,” said the mer- 
chant. “Are they good?” “Yes can do,” was 
the reply. ‘How do you know? You are 
not a Christian.” “Know? My belong 
merchant I savez. Korean man no good pay. 
One man very bad catchee much merchandise 
no pay, never will pay, never can pay. 
Afterwards same man came all makee pay up. 
My velly glad. I say, ‘Why you pay now? 
You no pay before.’ Korean man say, ‘Now 
I belong Christian, not Christian before, now 
I pay.’ Yesoo Chow velly good.” 

They met with Keel and others of the 
leaders and they walked in silence together 
through the city. They prayed, the Chinese 
in their unintelligible monosyllables, and the 
Koreans in their world-forgotten language of 
antiquity. Back to Mukden they went. Mr. 
Goforth, too, came at about the same time. 

As to the results I will let Prof. J. Macmillan 
Brown tell from a special article recently 
written. Prof. Brown is a_ hard-headed 
Scotchman, a graduate of Oxford, professor 


THE RESPONSE OF KOREA 217 


of English Literature for years, and a non- 
christian. He says: “The Manchurian revi- 
val began in Liaoyang on the return of two 
elders from Korea, bringing news of the 
spread of religion in that country. They and 
Mr. Goforth, a Canadian missionary from 
Ho-nan, who had also just visited Korea, 
gave an account of the movement to the 
church at Liaoyang. And at once similar 
phenomena took place. They came to Muk- 
den and the excitement began there in the 
same way. It was here that Mr. Webster’s 
personal observation of the movement began. 
He tells of the crowded church, and the sudden 
emotional infection that seized it without 
apparent cause; for the evangelist gave his 
story in a quiet tone and unimpassioned way. 
Twice a day the crowd came through the miry 
streets (and there is nothing to surpass the 
mire and ruts of Mukden) and the bitterly 
cold winter air to listen to the story and the 
appeal. Men and women broke into fervent 
prayer who had never uttered a prayer in 
public before. Strong men broke into sobs 
and threw themselves on their faces and wept. 
Others made wild confession of the sins of 
their former life. All vied with each other in 


Words of 
Missionaries 


218 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


generous gifts to the cause of evangelism, and 
in restitution to those whom they had 
wronged. They offered land, houses, a tenth 
or more of their incomes or salaries. Some 
offered gifts in kind; like a Chinese, who said 
he had received a great blessing, and had noth- 
ing to offer by way of expressing his gratitude 
‘except a black calf with a white stripe’ which 
he offered. Then volunteers came forward 
and went out to the villages all over the proy- 
ince to tell of the strange thing that had 
occurred, and to stir like enthusiasm. 

“One or two extracts from the letters of 
the missionaries will describe it better than 
anything second-hand. ‘Even outsiders have 
been drawn into the tempest of confes- 
sion and prayer, and in some cases great fear 
has fallen on the neighborhood. One man 
who had been associated with highway rob- 
bers, and had been submitted to torture dur- 
ing six months to extort a confession from 
him, but in vain, came forward at these meet- 
ings and confessed his sins and writhed in 
agony on the floor for a long time.’ Dr. 
Phillips of Newchwang writes that he had ‘a 
strong temperamental prejudice against re- 
vival hysteria in all its forms,’ yet he describes 


THE RESPONSE OF KOREA 219 


a meeting he attended as something beyond 
his experience and outside the range of mere 
hysteria: ‘The very air was electric, and above 
the sobbing in strained choking tones men 
began to make confession. Words of mine 
will fail to describe the awe, and terror, and 
pity of these confessions, mostly of trivial 
offenses yet leading to bitter remorse; it was 
the agony of the penitent, his groans and cries, 
and voice shaken with sobs; it was the sight of 
men forced to their feet and impelled to lay 
bare their hearts that moved one.’ ) 

“At Fakumen, seventy miles to the north- 
west of Mukden, it was the same storm of 
prayer, confession, and agonized weeping, 
and boundless generosity. Two men con- 
fessed each to murder and looting during the 
Boxer year. Many fell in a trance on the 
floor. Such crowds inside and outside the 
church had never been thought possible before 
at Fakumen.’ ‘At Hailuncheng, recently 
colonized, after a period of indifference the 
whole audience fell on their faces, loudly cry- 
ing for mercy.’ ” 

Prof. Brown, in the article previously re- 
ferred to, goes on to say: “It would be 
a remarkable movement in any part of the 


Interest at 
Fakumen and 
Hailuncheng 


An 
Unprecedented 
Movement 


But One 
Explanation 


No Defense 
Needed 


Keel’s 
Conclusion 


220 KorEA IN TRANSITION - 


world; it is unprecedented and striking in 
China.” 

Thus from the sorrows of this old land, and 
through the instrumentality of many praying 
Christians, there has gone forth this light that 
is flashing on and on through the palpable 
darknesses of China. Who but the Spirit of 
God was back of it? Who but he could so 
unveil the mysteries of the soul? Who make 
these sordid, cankered races appreciative of the 
pure and beautiful ? 

There are no criticisms to offer. Why was 
it thus and thus? Why such confessions? 
Why not more order? Where were the Meth- 
odist Manual and the Presbyterian Rules for 
Worship? These are all vain and useless 
questions. The whole revival was after the 
order of persistent prayer; it was according 
to the needs of the time and place; it was of 
God, and so let all the earth be silent. 

The writer was far away in America when 
the revival took place. Keel wrote him a 
letter on the 25th day of the first Moon, right 
in the whirl of it, and among other things he 
said: “If God had not manifested thus his 
Spirit, the Church of Korea would have been 
great only in appearance, but Satan would 


THE RESPONSE OF KOREA 221 


have ruled, and I fear few would have been 
saved. No power can tell of the blessing, nor 
can I write with pen all that God has done. 
My prayer is that the Spirit may be poured 
out on you as he has been manifested here.” 

In all the wonders of the ages, that the 
ancient walls of Ping yang have enclosed and 
looked down upon—wonders that have in- 
cluded the splendors of the Tangs, the Hans, 
the Mings; wonders that are known nowhere 
but in the tinted and highly-colored East— 
the strangest, the most inexplicable, the most 
awe-inspiring wonder has been the turning of 
these long-lost races back to God. 


SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VII 


Am: To ApprecIATE THE RESPONSE WHICH THE 
KorEANS ARE MAKING TO THE GOSPEL 


I. Self-propagation by the Native Church. 


1. Is it not the main business of the missionary 
to preach the gospel ? 

2. Has he any right to surrender this work to 
others? 

3.* What advantages has the missionary as an 
evangelist over the native Korean? 

4.* What advantages has the native Korean over 
the ‘missionary? 


Ping yang’s 
Supreme 
Wonder 


222 


Il. 


III. 


KorEA. IN TRANSITION 


5. Do you think that the Roman Catholic Church 
would sticceed in Anglo-Saxon countries, if 
it never employed any but Italian priests? 

6. Criticise this policy, and apply your criticism 
to the work of missionaries in Korea. 

7. If you were a missionary, how would you try 
to secure the codperation of your converts in 
evangelistic work? 

8. When you had succeeded, what work would 
you reserve for yourself? 

9.* How would you guard against the spread of 
false and superficial views by recent converts? 

io. To what extent do you think the Korean 
principles of self-propagation could be profit- 
ably applied in this country? 


Self-government by the Native Church. 


11. What are the dangers in placmg so much re- 
sponsibility for self-government upon the 
native Church? 

12, What are the advantages of native self-gov- 
ernment ? 

13.* Sketch what you would consider an ideal plan 
for the government of a native Church. 

14. What effect would the patriarchal ideas of the 
Koreans have upon self-government? 

15.* How would you seek to develop initiative 
among the native leaders? 

16. How would you secure codperation and self- 
government among the laity? 


Self-support by the Native Church. 


17.* What are the arguments for a free use of 


foreign money in building up the native 
Church? 


ke 


II. 


III. 


IV. 


THE RESPONSE OF KOREA 223 


18.* What are the arguments for requiring the 
native Church to meet all its own expenses? 

19. What things can the Church at home wisely 
provide for the Korean Christians? 

20. Has a field so responsive as Korea any right 
to ask for more missionaries? 

21. Apply to yourself personally and to your lo- , 
cality the lessons to be learned from the 
Korean Christians. 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY 
CHAPTER VII 


. Korean Response. 


Bishop: Korea and Her Neighbors, pp. 346-350. 

Underwood: Fifteen Years Among the Topknots, 
pp. 185, 180, 193-196, 310-318. 

Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, pp. 160-162, 
225-228. 


Self-sup port. 


Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, ch. XIV. 

Underwood: The Call of Korea, pp. 145, 146. 

Underwood: Fifteen Years Among the Topknots, 
PP. 132, 133, 145, 146. 


Obstacles to Receiving Christianity, 


Gifford: Every-day Life in Korea, pp. 158-160, 
163-169. 


The Revival. 


Underwood: Fifteen Years Among the Topknots, 
ch. XIX. 


GROWTH, PRESENT CONDI- 
TIONS, AND OUTLOOK 


225 


Are Koreans capable of high attainment? This question 
was asked the writer in April, 1903, by Captain Crown, 
commander of the Russian gunboat Mandjure. I replied, 
“‘We are experimenting; not convinced as yet.’’ He went on 
to say, “I have never been in Korea, but know something 
of Koreans. It came about in this way: In 1870 my father 
was governor of Eastern Siberia, and on a journey in the 
winter from Vladivostok to Nikolaievsk, we passed many 
Koreans who had come north over the border. One evening, 
on the side of the roadway, we saw some blankets heaped up 
together and wrapped about something. My mother had 
one of the Cossack guards dismount and find out. The quilts 
covered two little Korean girls, who were almost perished. 
They were taken into the sled, wrapped up warm, and 
became members of our family. A month later we were 
called to St. Petersburg, and they went too. They grew up 
excellent students, both, one remarkably so, as she far outdid 
me in mathematics and English. After graduation, one went 
out to Vladivestok as a missionary of the Greek Church to 
her own people and there died; the other is to-day governess 
in the home of the Grand Duke of Constantine and has care 
of his little daughter. She rides out in her fine carriage and 
has her letters handed to her on a silver tray and is one of the 
most cultured ladies I know.” 

—Fames S. Gale 


We are pressed on every side by men and women who want 
us to teach them about Christ. We have a hundred more 
invitations than we can accept. Last fall some Koreans 
came in to see me and asked me if I could come out to their 
village at once and teach them. When I told them that I 
could not go they pulled out some bank notes and asked 
me if I would go if I were paid. They were in earnest. So 
it is all over this great district. I could keep six missionaries 
busy all the time, and then have work for more. Korea 
can be won for Christ, and in this generation. If the Church 
will give us what we ask for now and strongly reinforce our 
work in the next ten years, this old heathen nation will line 
up with the other Christian nations of the world. It can be 
9 the Sete of the Church in the Phas It must 

one quickly. Our opportunity is rapi passing away. 
New pee cee wk work which are make A more difficult 
for us to work. What is done must be done now. 


—E. M. Cable 


226 


Vill 


GROWTH, PRESENT CONDITIONS, 
AND OUTLOOK 


Each new year’s statistics from Korea 
seems more remarkable than the last. The 
first converts were baptized in the summer of 
1886. By 1890 the number of converts con- 
nected with all missions was somewhat over 
100. As compared with many other fields, 
this is a rapid growth. Dr. Beach’s Geog- 
raphy and Atlas of Protestant Missions 
gives the figures at the end of the year 1900 
as follows: “AII Protestant missionaries in- 
cluding wives, 141; stations, 26; outstations, 
354; communicants, 8,288. The latest statis- 
tics available read: missionaries, 248; stations, 
37; outstations, 1,149; communicants, 50,089; 
adherents, 111,379. Some striking details of 
growth in the number of communicants in two 
denominations are as follows: 

Methodist Episcopal Church 


Raa eso oe dvr lal> cine aetna 5,855 


Remarkable 
Progress 


Characteristic 
Reports 


Strategic 
Opportunity 
for Asia 


228 KoreEA IN TRANSITION 


Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. 


TQO2 . os clang oe 4. 6,395 
TOO5, eens alee ee ee 9,750 
TQ08 i. Mew) aol 19,654 


The following reports are characteristic: 

“More new churches, more new communi- 
cants, and more contributions than ever before 
in one year.” 

. “Ping yang records 2,206 communicants for 
1908, as compared with 1,106 for the preceding 
year.” 

“Syen chun reports 1,388 baptisms and 2,045 
additions to the catechumens during the past 
year.” 

“Already the country is waking up and a 
new era is dawning. The fullest possible 
religious liberty is enjoyed and the opportunity 
which opens before the Church is of a marvel- 
ous character. The people at large are turn- 
ing to the Church in multitudes. They are 
convinced that Christianity offers the only sal- 
vation for them, and’ that through its ethical 
and spiritual power alone they will be able to 
develop a manhood equal to the new oppor- 
tunities which open before them. On the other 
hand, the Church itself is alive as never before; 


ee ‘ 


TNOIS ‘HONNHD LSIGOH LAY 


GrowTH, ConpiTions, OUTLOOK 229 


and the native Christian leaders are planning 
for nothing less than the evangelization of the 
nation. The new Korea will be a Christian 
Korea and that within a comparatively short 
period of time. Churches are multiplying in 
all directions. It is not possible for a foreign 
missionary to keep in personal touch with the 
multiplied groups which spring up everywhere. 
Evangelistically, the opportunity of the Asiatic 
continent of the present day is to be found in 
Korea. No other field compares with this in 
the urgency and the promise of its condition. 
This is the strategic people and the present is 
the strategic time in this land. Ten millions 
of souls await help and instruction which the 
Christian Church can give. . 

“The growth of the Church in Korea fur- 
nishes a bright promise of the speedy evangel- 
ization of this people. The first converts under 
the Methodist Episcopal Church were reported 
in 1888 and numbered thirty-eight. In 1907 
the total following of the Church was 
39,613—an increase over the beginning of 
over a thousandfold. An examination of the 
statistics of the mission will show that the 
ratio of increase has practically been main- 
tained from the beginning, and all signs indi- 


Methodist 
Episcopal 
Church Growth 


230 KoreEA IN TRANSITION 


cate that this increase may continue for an 
indefinite time. It is easy to work out marvel- 
ous results with figures in connection with any 
enterprise, but when one contemplates the 
numerical growth of the Church in the Korean 
field the result must be a great strengthening 
of the faith of the Church in the complete suc- 
cess of its mission to the world. In Korea we 
have a field in which there is promise of the 
rapid evangelization of the entire nation, and 
whose very condition constitutes an imperative 
call to the Church to concentrate her effort on 
the great work of giving a people so ready for 
it the gospel of Christ. The results reported 
in Korea have been achieved in the midst of a 
poverty of men and resources which might 
well have daunted the best workers. The 
Korean mission has had fourteen men, thirteen 
wives, and thirteen Woman’s Foreign Mis- 
sionary Society workers, or a total of forty. 
We are confident that if the Church had given 
Korea five times the number of missionaries 
the field now possesses, the results in converts 
would have been many times what they are. 
There has been in Korea only one native 
worker for each 660 of the Church-member- 
ship, and only one missionary (man) for each 


AGALS AIG SNIT\\ OM] YOA GIMAHLV NA NVILSINHD 


GrowTH, CoNnDITIONS, OUTLOOK 231 


1,630 Church-members. Taking the past 
three years into consideration, the average rate 
of increase in Korea has been over 33 per cent. 
If this rate of increase is maintained for a pe- 
riod of ten years, there will be in the care of 
our mission in Korea a total Church-member- 
ship of over 400,000.” 

“At a meeting of our pastors and preachers 
in Seoul the question was asked them as to the 
extent of our work. The answer was that 
our present enrolment of forty-five thousand 
must be multiplied by ten to express the num- 
ber who to-day stand just outside the threshold 
of our Church in Korea, ready to accept the 
Christian faith if we only give them the 
chance. It isa matter of men and money now. 
The present conditions will not abide perma- 
nently in Korea. To-day Christianity is the 
national enthusiasm of the Korean people. 
Surely, half a million souls are worth a 
supreme effort upon our part as servants of 
the Christ who died upon the cross—yea, and 
arose and ascended for us. Are not all these 
things providentially related? Is not this the 
finger of God?” 

A notable feature of the work in Korea has 
been the Bible training classes. The follow- 


Number Now 
Accessible 


Bible Training 
Classes 


Class Methods 
of Work 


Impressive 
Results 


232 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


ing extracts from a Board report will give 
some idea of their present growth: 

“The conduct of the annual Bible class for 
men was a matter for grave concern, with only 
one clergyman in the station and probably over 
600 to be instructed. As a consequence we 
were obliged to depend more largely than ever 
on the native helpers and colporteurs. The 
class was attended by over 500 from a dis- 
tance, and among them was a large propor- 
tion from the most outlying regions of our 
work. A number came 100 miles to attend.” 
“The way the Christians lay aside their work 
and attend these classes for Bible study is a 
constant wonder and delight. Those who 
study bear their own expenses; and in the city 
we assess each student a small amount to pay 
the running expenses of the class. 

“The winter class in the city was attended 
by about 900 men from all parts of the prov- 
ince. While there was none of that terrible 
conviction and confession of sin of the year 
before, it was a time of deep consecration to 
the Master’s service. The after effects were 
very evident in the country churches. Alto- 
gether there have been held 151 classes for 
men in the country churches, attended by 


re oe ne | ees 
Sa MS ema ES: 


i 


MeETHOopDIST CONGREGATION, SEOUL 


ni 


\' 


WoMEn’s BisLe INSTITUTE 


GROWTH, CONDITIONS, OUTLOOK 233 


6,575 persons. The three city classes were 
attended by about 1,500 persons.” “The mid- 
winter Bible class for men in February had 
an attendance of 800, a gain of 300 over last 
year. The men came from all the churches 
and remained for instruction ten days. After 
effects appeared in a series of small classes 
held by the Koreans themselves at various 
places. The yearly growth of this midwinter 
class, the interest of the students, and their 
zealous though laborious efforts at note-tak- 
ing attest the value that the Koreans them- 
selves set upon them.” 

“The largest class ever held in Korea was 
held in February in the Syen chun church. 
Five Bible study classes for men were con- 
ducted by the men of the station during the 
year, enrolling over 2,500. The classes for 
women have been especially well attended. 
The two classes held in Syen chun enrolled 
660. Miss Samuels held sixteen classes dur- 
ing the year, enrolling 2,458 women.” 

An illustration of another type of Bible 
classes, organized by native workers and held 
in the villages for all members of the 
Churches, has been given by the Rev. J. Z. 
Moore. 


Large Classes 


Native Workers’ 
Plan 


Bible Study 
and Revival 
Services 


Crowned with 
Blessing 


234 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


“At the close of our conference in Decem- 
ber, I had intended to get the leaders together 
and make out a plan for a week of Bible 
study and revival services at each church on 
my circuits. But as with many of ‘the best 
laid plans of mice and men’ a broken arm un- 
expectedly brought this to an end. On the 
closing day of the conference, between the 
pains in my arm, I was wondering how we 
could get along without the Bible classes, and 
why I had been put out of service just at the 
time of greatest opportunity. While I was 
yet thinking, one of the native preachers came 
in bringing a paper. Knowing that I could 
not take charge of it, the native preacher and 
Church officers in attendance at the conference 
had met together and made out a plan where- 
by each of the twenty-six churches would 
have a week of Bible study and revival serv- 
ices under the leadership of two tried and true 
men. They had sent me a copy of the plan 
that I might know where each man would be 
and follow him with my prayers. 

“T awaited with expectation the results of 
these classes. Soon reports began to come in 
that they were having good times in the coun- 
try, but I had no definite report till these 


GrowTH, CoNDITIONS, OUTLOOK 235 


same native preachers and many of the Church 
officers gathered in January for our theo- 
logical class. I soon had them all together 
for an afternoon tea and report of the classes. 
Every class, with the exception of one, had 
been held as scheduled, and every man had 
gone to the place appointed, with the excep- 
tion of two, who had exchanged places. Each 
man, it should be noted, went from his home 
church to another place for this work, and the 
local churches bore all expenses of heat, light, 
and evangelists’ board. The attendance was 
from 25 at the smallest church to over 80 at 
the largest. In all, over 1,000, one third of 
whom were women, attended the regular Bible 
classes in the daytime; and the revival services 
at night were attended at many places by all 
who could crowd into the churches. The real 
inner results cannot be told, but can be seen 
all over the work. Though many of the 
teachers were all too deficient in Bible knowl- 
edge, yet at each class God had ‘much new 
light to break forth from his holy Word,’ and 
at several places the revival services were just 
as marked in sorrow for the burden of sin 
and joy for pardon and forgiveness found, as 
those of last year. Most of all, the leaders of 


Subscriptions 
of Time 


230 KoreA IN TRANSITION 


these meetings, many of whom had never at- 
tempted anything of the kind before, were 
blessed in their own spiritual lives and built 
up in the faith, learning for the first time, as 
some one said at our afternoon meeting, that 
‘it is more blessed to give than to receive,’ 
and that one does not really get the gospel 
until he gives to others what he has received: 
“The greatest result of these Bible classes 
and revival services in the direct and imme- 
diate extension of the kingdom is found in 
what the natives call Nal Yunbo. On the last 
day of the meetings, in the public service they 
prepare a subscription paper, and each man 
and woman according to his own heart, in- 
stead of giving money, gives so many days to 
house to house and village to village preach- 
ing. Last year at just a few churches this 
was done, but this year every church reported 
on Nal Yunbo. This preaching was not only 
all without pay, but some would be at personal 
expense as well as time lost from their work. 
Yet at one church they gave altogether over 
one thousand days and at Chunnampo one 
woman pledged six months of the year to 
preaching. I cannot tell anything of the whole 
results, but a few features from reports will 


GROWTH, CONDITIONS, OUTLOOK 237 


give you at least a faint idea of the workings 
of this unique plan. 

One man said, as his house was by the side 
of the road, he preached to all who passed and 
most of them received the word gladly. An- 
other man during three weeks preached defi- 
nitely from house to house to two hundred 
people, fifty of whom believed. At one church 
fifty women were gathered in as a result of 
this preaching (for the women went from 
house to house as well as the men), and they 
now have started a night school, as they want 
to learn to read the Bible and have no time to 
study in the daytime. In all, new work has 
sprung up in over forty towns as a result of 
this preaching. 

Those who justly lament the denominational 
differences of Christian workers on the foreign 
field can at least comfort themselves with the 
thought that things are not so bad as they are at 
home. There is in general closer fellowship 
between missionaries of different boards on the 
foreign field than between pastors of different 
denominations in this country. Korea has been 
especially favored in the cordiality of the rela- 
tions that have always existed between the 
various bodies of missionaries working there. 


Fruitful Forms 
of Effort 


Comity 


Young Men’s 
Christian 
Association 


238 KoreA IN ‘TRANSITION 


The translation of the Bible, a union hymnal, 
union magazines, both in Korean and English, 
and Sunday-school helps are all under inter- 
denominational auspices. The collegiate and 
academy work at Ping yang is under the joint 
control of the Northern Methodists and North- 
ern Presbyterians. The converts of the North- 
ern, Southern, Canadian, and Australian Pres- 
byterians are united in a single Church with a 
single presbytery. There is a general council 
in which all the workers except those of the 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
Foreign Parts are represented. There has 
been an assignment of fields of work by 
mutual agreement in order to prevent over- 
lapping, and in some cases an interchange of 
fields that had been already entered. This 
adjustment is not yet complete, but is pro- 
ceeding in a fraternal spirit. Finally there 
has been discussed the establishment of a 
single Church of Christ in Korea which shall 
include the converts of all the Methodist and 
Presbyterian missions. 

The new building of the Young Men’s 
Christian Association in Seoul is just finished. 
It stands in the heart of the city and the 
center of the land. It is, next to the Roman 


) 
ny P a ee ; 
’ 


[Pa 


| 


pers 
et waka 
} q 
‘ f 
“y 
“. 
agi ie ; Ai 


MISSIONARIES AND NATIVE WORKERS 


Younc Men’s CuristiAN ASSOCIATION BUILDING, SEOUL 


GrowTH, CoNDITIONS, OUTLOOK 239 


Catholic Cathedral, and excepting the New 
Palace, the most prominent building in the 
capital. At the opening exercises there were 
present representatives from China and Japan, 
and on the closing day Prince Ito came and 
made a speech. The Korean Chairman, the 
Hon. T. H. Yun, at the closing exercises made 
an appeal to his own people to help this work. 
He said: “I'll back my appeal by giving 500 
yen ($250). The Prime Minister present 
gave 500 yen as well. “This is for Koreans,” 
said Mr. Yun, “and not for the foreign ladies 
and gentlemen present.” A good-hearted 
Christian druggist, Yi Min-sang, who gives 
alms here, there, and everywhere, shouted, “A 
thousand yen,” and they put him down. In 
ten minutes subscriptions amounting to 6,700 
yen were received, and Prince Ito expressed 
his pleasure at the interest manifested. 
Through the Young Men’s Christian Asso- 
ciation gateway are coming hundreds of 
hungry youth for help on life’s pathway. 
“Teach us, tell us, guide us, show us, lead us.” 

Few if any mission fields in the world make 
so deep an impression upon travelers as does 
Korea. About a decade ago, Mrs. Isabella 
Bird Bishop wrote to America: “The Ping 


Statement of 
Mrs. Bishop 


Spiritual Effects 


240 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


yang work which I saw last winter and which 
is still going on in much the same way is the 
most impressive mission work I have seen in 
any part of the world. It shows that the 
Spirit of God still moves on the earth, and that 
the old truths of sin and judgment to come, 
of the divine justice and love, of the atone- 
ment and of the necessity for holiness, have 
the same power as in the Apostolic days to 
transform the lives of men. What I saw and 
heard has greatly strengthened my own faith. 
Now a door is opened wide in Korea, how 
wide only those can know who are on the spot. 
Very many are prepared to renounce devil 
worship and to worship the true God, if only 
they are taught how, and large numbers more 
who have heard and received the gospel are 
earnestly craving to be instructed in its rules 
of holy living. I dread indescribably that 
unless many men and women experienced in 
winning souls are sent speedily, the door 
which the Church declines to enter will close 
again.” 

A missionary writes: “We did not come to 
the foreign field expecting to have our own 
spiritual lives revived, but this is exactly what 
happened. The atmosphere here seems like 


GROWTH, CoNDITIONS, OUTLOOK 241 


Northfield. Everywhere people are praying. 
Every Sabbath sees a congregation of about 
1,000 men, women, and children gathered in 
the church here.” 

A recent graduate of Vassar, whose per- 
_sonal attitude toward missions was critical, 
wrote home to her mother from Ping yang, 
during the latter part of 1907, as follows: 
“The attitude of some authors and of many 
travelers toward the Koreans is simply ridicu- 
lous. They are in some respects the most 
remarkable people I have ever seen. It is as 
though they had been asleep in a deadening 
stupor; the result of being ground under the 
heel of a thoroughly corrupt and oppressive 
government. Christianity has come to them 
in the time of their greatest need, and is ful- 
filling that need marvelously. You know how 
critical my attitude is, you know that I do 
not stand firm for mission work in a sweeping, 
general way. However agnostic my attitude, 
I have nothing whatever to say but that the 
missions are saving the national life of this 
people, in giving them through Christianity a 
life that they could have in no other way. 

“There is absolutely no room for argument 
against missions in Korea. The lives of the 


A Convinced 
Witness 


No Room for 
Argument 


242 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


people are too obviously changed from hope- 
lessness to vivid righteousness to admit of any 
exception. Whenever the incessant wran- 
gling and quarreling that goes on within the 
dark, tiny walls of a mud house cease the 
neighbors will say, ‘Why, so and so must have 
become Christians, they’re so quiet.’ The dif- 
ference in the cleanliness of the houses is 
apparent to me, and even in four days I 
learned to pick out a Christian woman by the 
expression of her face. . . . You will be 
astonished at my utterances, but it is the inev- 
itable result of an open-minded view of Korean 
conditions. The Korean is, as a result of 
natural temperament and a deadening gov- 
ernment, a singularly passive, childlike man, 
with little ambition,no incentive, because every 
cent of money made was inevitably squeezed 
out of him by the Yang ban (officers-noble), 
and yet with brilliant intellectual capacity. 
He is far more of a scholar and far less a 
man of action than the Japanese; he has far 
more stability and a far more real sense of 
honor than the Japanese. Of one thing I am 
certain—of two things: that the Young Men’s 
Christian Association is one of the strongest 
powers for righteous progress, that is, real 


GrowTH, CoNDITIONS, OUTLOOK 243 


progress, in Japan (and I expect to be able 
to say the entire East), and that Christianity 
is the force for good and for enlightenment 
in Korea, in spite of all that may be said con- 
cerning Japanese reform, governmental, edu- 
cational, and social.” 

Buried for ages under these dragon hills, 
unable to lift the million pounds of pressure 
that has held them down, calling for help and 
no voice to answer, separated from light and 
life and hope by ten thousand miles of impass- 
able sea and land, these young men and women 
have lived and died, tortured by ignorance and 
superstition, victims of fate, the evil eye, the 
Fight Characters, the Seven Stars, the wind 
gods, the hill devils, and all other ill spirits let 
loose, with no one to tell them whence they 
came, whither, or how, till at last in this day 
of revolution the load is to be lifted, and all 
men will be free. Even while Japan rules, and 
outwardly they are brought under suzerainty, 
inwardly the Koreans hear the note of 
freedom. 

But all accomplished thus far has touched 
but the outskirts of the nation. It would take 


The Present 


Thus Far the 
Work Only 
Begun 


long pages to tell of the deliverance yet to be © 


wrought. The thirsty land longs for leaders, 


244 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


young men and young women, who will guide 
and conduct along the way of intellect and 
spirit, till they arrive at a place that will meet 
the demands of the soul. The nation was once 
a vast prison, but is now being metamorphosed 
into a school where thousands of pupils are on 
hand. Each has brought his little note-book 
and pencil; each has learned all within hail, 
to make sure of entrance. They wait, wait, 
for the teacher to come. To some he has 
come, and thither crowd the students, but for 
the multiplying majorities there is no teacher 
as yet. Western knowledge, Western religion, 
the secret of the West, is what the East is 
calling for. ‘Woe betide us, if you give it 
not,” echoes the eternal voice of all the ages. 
Give it we must, and if you give it not some 
one more highly favored will step in and 
give it, but not for you. The discovery 
of an unoccupied continent by Columbus was 
not as great as this opening of territory on the 
continent of Asia which has taken place and 
is now going on in your day. Who are to be 
the colonists to make the New Englands and 
Virginias in this region of the intellect and 
soul? You my reader, for you are here to 
make your best impression on the world in 


GrowTH, CONDITIONS, OUTLOOK 245 


the short space of time allotted. God grant 
that you make it on Asia; it is the greatest 
field open and Korea is one of the keys thereto. 
She is in touch with both Japan and China. 
She leads Japan’s life and she thinks China’s 
thoughts. She writes and reads a language 
known to both. 

Another cause that leads her into this wider 
way of service is the fact that Korea’s old 
narrow partitions are broken down, and home 
is anywhere, wide as the horizon. But the 
political situation is such that she cannot go 
abroad, only to China and Japan. Other 
doors are closed and she is not allowed free 
exit. This too is a part of the great plan, and 
contributes to the end in view. 

Two weeks ago the writer heard for the 
first time in twenty years’ experience the 
sound of a Chinese voice from the pulpit of 
his church. Mr. S. K. Tsao, of Shanghai, 
addressing a thousand Koreans or more said: 
“My heart rejoices when I see the work of 
God in this land. A great field lies before you, 
not only in your own country but in China. 
I expect the day to come when you will send 
missionaries to my land and help evangelize 
it.” It was a Macedonian call of the present 


Providential 
Lines of Destiny 


A Voice from 
China 


246: KorEA IN TRANSITION 


day. The whole East is calling, and if your 
heart be but turned by prayer and earnest 
inquiry into God’s Word for his thoughts and 
plans, you will catch the vibrations that quiver 
through the ether more persistently than 
Marconi’s. wireless signals: “C,O,M,E; 
FB, Psi." 

oi of The Thou, reader, come with me till I show thee 
the unevangelized lands, the lands without 
teachers, and in the showing thou wilt see the 
Far East; and it will stretch away, and away, 
and still away, wider than the limit of thy 
mind to measure; and it will be peopled with 
millions and millions. Counting would never 
do it, for thou couldst never even think them 
all, so many and so many. 

ween What are they doing in this world? Un- 
consciously they grope round at this and that, 
tramping the treadmills of the ages, following 
worn ruts cut in the rocks and crumbling 
granite, mumbling unintelligible prayers, 
swearing worn-out oaths, dying in the old 
fearsome way, with tears and wailings and 
agony, being buried; on, and on, and on, 
millions upon millions; no churches, no hos- 
pitals, no newspapers, no schools, no books, 
no liberty of thought, no explanation of life, 


OAMO], ‘NOILVYIGGY LNAGALG NVILSIVHD S,ATIOM, OL SaLvoaTaq 
suddvay] Nvayoy so anory vy 


GRowTH, CONDITIONS, OUTLOOK 247 


no solution to the terrors of nature about 
them; no confidence in the neighboring states 
just over the way; no message from the under- 
world as to whether it is peopled with half 
beasts or only devils; in terror as to the acts 
of sun, moon, and stars; scared by the sea with 
its water-dragons and hungry beasts; in fear 
of the hills full of disembodied spirits; cut off 
from hope for spirit, soul, and body. Gaze 
thou on them and think and ponder well, hadst 
thou been born there, thou too wouldst have 
had the vacant eye, the soul wild with weeds, 
the mind shrunk, hopeless; thou too wouldst 
be foul of body, begrimed with dirt; thou too 
wouldst have had the little hovel in which to 
huddle; thou too wouldst have crossed life’s 
stage a poor benighted heathen, to be laughed 
at, and kicked, and cuffed, and spat on by the 
world that thinks it sees; and in the end thy 
body might be left unburied till it became a 
terror to all living creatures. 

Hadst thou two souls and one so lost as 
this, how that twin soul of thine would rush 
to earth’s most distant boundary to rescue and 
save the soul of thine that was lost. But 
equally precious to any half soul of thine are 
these multitudes to whom all the gateways of 


Soul Service and 
Coming Glory 


The East Holds 
the Question of 
Questions 


248 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


the world have opened; toward whom mighty 
steamers plow the oceans; across whose line 
of vision go long lines of railway trains; 
into the very citadel of whose ignorance 
now clicks the telegraph; each of them 
signs and signals that God is calling thee, 
thou reader. This twin brother of thine 
is in prison; leave thou thyself and thy 
wishes and visit thou him; he is hungry, 
feed him; he is thirsty, give him drink. If thou 
doest this well, there will be times of suffering 
and sacrifice for thee and trial and self- 
renunciation, but thou wilt assuredly see at the 
close thereof the most beautiful city that has 
ever been founded; thou shalt be shown the 
way thither by the most beautiful guards of 
honor, and on the entrance thou shalt hear 
such a voice as thy ears have waited all these 
years to hear; and thou shalt see, in the midst 
of joy unspeakable and full of glory, many 
dearest friends of thine from the yellow lands 
of the East. 

The Far East is to have its innings. The 
time has come. For masses of humanity she 
leads the world, and when the president of all 
the earth is to be elected by popular vote, he. 
will be a man of the yellow skin. She can do 


GROWTH, CONDITIONS, OUTLOOK 249 


anything; once teach her and she can do all 
that we can do cheaper and easier. She is the 
greatest question to-day in the whole world 
of thought; fear hangs on her, untold hopes 
center in her. She can hate like a branded 
fiend; she can love like a little child. O thou 
East, what will the end be? Truly out of thee 
will come great men and good, and women 
whose names will last through all ages; in 
thee is infolded the solution of the world, and 
the end of all its questions. 

The writer was once asked, “Who is the 
greatest man you have ever met?” He pon- 
dered long over the question, for he had met 
kings; princes, nobility, Western and Eastern, 
great rulers, writers, statesmen, inventors, 
evangelists, preachers, teachers; it seemed as 
though he had met everybody. Now who is 
first among all these? To whom would you 
give a Nobel prize as the greatest man on 
earth? It would go to—not the king, nor 
the millionaire, nor the inventor, nor the 
preacher—but to one who was an outcast, 
socially, intellectually, morally, physically, a 
tramp of the streets, who came into touch with 
the story of the redeemed. The sound of it, 
in some way I know not how, awakened 


The Greatest 
Man 


250 KoREA IN TRANSITION 


responses in his soul. For him, could it be? 
He, a lost gambler, not even of average intel- 
lect, branded with all marks of sin, equal to 
a leper as to his physique. As he pondered 
and prayed and dreamed over these discovered 
ideals of his, he was little by little changed, the 
old life sloughed off, and in some miraculous 
way the face became gentle, benign, lighted 
up, beautiful; the old ways dropped off, and 
in place of self being all in all, others came 
into being, lived, and flourished. All money 
labored for, beyond a little rice to live by, 
passed on its winged way for others. Long 
prayers were made over a few pieces of cash, 
that their service might be made sure. From 
this castaway fragment of charcoal, that had 
been transformed into flashing diamond, 
radiated light in all directions. The poor were 
touched by it; ex-ministers of state were over- 
come by the quiet voice and the heart of love, 
this one, that one; proud men were brought 
down low when they met him; the humble 
were lifted up and made glad. Ko’s heart 
enlarged so that he desired to know all about 
the world, its knowledge, its science. He 
managed addition, subtraction, multiplication ; 
division cost him deep thought, but at last he 


GROWTH, CONDITIONS, OUTLOOK 251 


saw through its tricks; fractions were beyond 
him. ‘Three fifths of seven eighths. That 
beats me,” said he; “I'll give it up till I get 
more sense.” As his horizon extended and 
other nations came into the circle of it, he 
inquired for them and put their names into his 
prayers. By degrees his heart widened till it 
took in great companies of people. Long after 
he had been a noted leader in Christian work, 
and dressed well according to his station, he 
came on a home of young men who were too 
poor to eat and too proud to do coolie work. 

“Put a rack on your back,” says Ko, “and 
you will soon make enough to pay for the 
winter’s pickle.” 

“But we are ashamed,” said they; “we can’t 
face the world with a rack on the back.” 

“No?” said Ko, “then Til get a rack too 
and go with you.” 
So down the Main Street of Seoul went Ko, 
with hat off and broad smile over his face, a 
rack on his back to help these young men over 
their fear. He made a silver dollar and gave 
it to the Kims for pickle. He often said, “I 
wonder why people are so good to me, these 
high nobility too, and I a castaway,” and the 
tears would come. 


Ko Chan-ik 


252 KorEA IN TRANSITION 


Ko of The Vanguard, the same who 
labored and sorrowed and rejoiced and prayed 
with a whole world of fellow pilgrims, even 


the same Ko who now sleeps outside the 


East Gate, would get the Nobel prize for 
greatness. He would get it because he loved 
most unselfishly and patiently the greatest 
number of people at one and the same time; 
because he could hold more of humanity in 
his heart and plan for them, think about them, 
pray for them, encourage them, gladden them, 
and call on them, than any other mortal I 
have ever known. The greatest heart I ever 
knew—Ko Chan-ik. Thou, reader, be thou 
likewise. 


SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER VIII 


Aim: To APPRECIATE THE CALL oF KorEA IN TRAN- 
SITION 


I. The Future Prospects. 


1. On the basis of the figures of 1890, 1900, and 
the present, what may we expect to see in 
Korea in 1920? 

2. What rate of future increase is indicated by 
the figures for 1902, 1905, and 1908? 

3. In which decade of missionary work should 
we expect the most rapid rate of increase, the 
first, second, or third? 


1 


III. 


GROWTH, CONDITIONS, OUTLOOK 253 


4.* 


Sum up the influences that tend to increase 
the rate of progress in the evangelization of 
a non-christian land as time goes on. 

Mention circumstances that might check this 
rate of increase. 

What is the lesson to the Christian Church 
of these possibilities? 


Korea an Object-lesson to Asia. 
7.* What would be the special value to the Far 


10.* 


IT. 


East of having an entire nation in Asia accept 
Christianity ? 

Why is Korea more likely than any other 
nation to become such an object-lesson? 
What will be the effect on the Far East if 
the Christianity of Korea is of only a super- 
ficial type? 

What things that Korea lacks do you think 
she needs most to fit her to serve as an object- 
lesson of Christianity? 

What lines of work do you think missionaries 
should especially emphasize at present? 


Korea an Object-lesson to the World. 


12. 


13. 


14. 


T5e% 


Contrast the opportunities presented to Bible 
class leaders in Korea and in other lands. 
How would it affect your own locality if such 
comity prevailed between Christian denomina- 
tions as in Korea? 

To what extent does the argument for a united 
Christian Church in Korea apply to Chris- 
tianity in this country? 

Compare the present awakening of the Far 
East in its extent and scope with the Renais- 
sance and the Reformation. 


254 KoreEA IN TRANSITION 


IV. The Present Appeal. 


16.* Sum up the call of Korea to-day in view of 
the needs. 

17.* Sum up the call of Korea to-day in view of 
the achievements. 

18.* Sum up the call of Korea to-day in view of 
the opportunities. 

19.* Defend the investment of $100,000 of mission- 
ary money in some form of work in Korea. 

20.* Present missionary service in Korea as the 
most profitable investment of a life-work. 


REFERENCES FOR FURTHER STUDY. 
CHAPTER VIII 


I. The Outlook. 


Underwood: The Call of Korea,.pp. 136-150. 

Hulbert: The Passing of Korea, ch. XXXV. 

Supplement with denominational literature and 
recent magazine articles. 


APPENDIXES 


255 


APPENDIX A 


Division OF TERRITORY, POPULATION, 
DISTRIBUTION OF MISSIONARIES! 


: ac cUReS Responsibility 

Province Population | Missionaries faniaach 

Chulla (North)............... 597,393 20 30,000 
Chulla (South)................ 850,635 12 70,000 
Chung chong (East)..,........ 491,717 7 70,000 
Chung chong (West).......... 649,756 8 81,000 
Hamkyung (North)........... 390,055 3 133,000 
Hamkyung (South)........... 582,463 23 25,000 
Kang wun............ ie 627,832 2 313,000 
Kyung kui.......... 869,020 82 ,000 
Kyung sang (North). 1,062,991 13 81,000 
Kyung sang (South) 1,270,214 16 79,000 
Pyengan (North). . (00,119 16 37,000 
ate (South)... 689,017 37 18,600 
Pecan ince ce ea'e's 901,099 8 112,000 


1Jssued by the Financial Adviser's Office and published in The Christian Move- 
ment in Japan, 1907. 


257 


APPEN 


STATISTICS OF PROTESTANT Missions IN KorgeA COMPILED 


FORRIGN MISSION- 


| ARIES, INCLUDING 
3 a4 PHYSICIANS 
a Ss 
S le Mh 
NAME OF SOCIETIES 3 s|4 s.@ 
es z =ai3/3 % ee | 
a=] o f g } 
g «2 | 3 4 |28 @ 
oo = Om & Sa a 
g8| 28/2) 8 leis Pp 
Re) RR 1615 |EEIOg 
AMERICAN SOCIETIES ‘ 
American Bible Society . isc), Jen oee esha son cslecetes cs ehiuaeeee eenee 1907] 1882} 1) .. i. 
Board of Foreign Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church?......... 1908) 1885} 21) 2) 18} 21 
Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in U. §. A........ 1908} 1884) 30} 1) 37| 10 
Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South........... 1907-8} 1895] 11} 5) 12) .. 
Executive Committee of Foreign Missions, Presbyterian Church in U. S. ./1906-7} 1896] 9) 4| 9] 4 
Foreign Department, Y. M. C. A. of North America ..................- 1909] 1901) 3) ss}. ..) .. 
Foreign Mission Committee, Presbyterian Church, Canada .............. 1907) 1898) 6) ..| 4) 4 
Woman’s Board of Foreign Missions, Methodist Episcopal Church, South.|1908-9} 1897) ..) ..| ..} IL 
Total. American Societies, 8. - j 05... cs ccln deldeela tenants sees (SRecal) SUM ies ~ 80 | 
BritisH Societies 
British and Foreign Bible Society...................+.2- 5: War ceteaels 1908} 1885} 2) ..) 2) .. 
Foreign Mission Committee, Presbyterian Church of Australia.......... 1908} 1889} 3) .. 3}. 6b 
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts.,............ 1907} 1896} 4) 3 39 
Potal British Sootehiess Bi 4s00-Lece cece. accom ence eee Fe eee i es eee) 
Grand Total, ‘11 Sovleties 1.25).5 2.4.0 as) sas ceeonee wees eee seee[ oe--f 90) 15) 85) 58 


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258 


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259 


APPENDIX C 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


The first seven books mentioned in the list below 
are included in the Reference Library issued to 
accompany this text-book. Numbers eight to ten have 
been freely cited in the references at the end of the 
chapters. The last five are listed for the benefit of those 
who are interested in the present political situation. 


Gate: Korean Sketches. 1898. Fleming H. Revell 
Co., New York. Illustrated. $1.00. 


One of the most attractive books ever written on Korea. Useful 
for a person uninterested in missions, but who can appreciate clever 
writing. Some of the characterizations are very acute. 

Gate: The Vanguard. 1904. Fleming H. Revell Co., 
New York. Illustrated. $1.50, net. 


Perhaps the most successful missionary novel vet written. The 
atmosphere and phases of missionary life are hit off in most pic- 
turesque style. A splendid book to interest the indifferent. Q 


Noste: Ewa: A Tale of Korea. 1906. Eaton & Mains, 
New York. Illustrated. $1.25. 

One of the most thrilling missionary stories written. The char- 
acters and incidents are historical, and the spirit and traditions of 
the people have been faithfully followed. 

Barrp: Daybreak in Korea. 1909. Fleming H. Revell 
Co., New York. Illustrated. 60 cents, net. 

A tale of the power of the gospel in transforming heathen so- 
ciety, and especially the life of women. 

Unverwoop: Fifteen Years Among the Top-Knots. 
Second Edition, 1908. American Tract Society, 
New York. Illustrated. $1.50. 

260 


APPENDIX C 261 


An account of the experiences of missionary work in Korea, de- 
scribed in an interesting way. The second edition contains three 
additional chapters covering the most recent developments of 
Korean missions. 


Hupert: The Passing of Korea. 1906. Doubleday, 
Page & Co., New York. Illustrated. $3.80, net. 


A reference book by one who knows the coun th 
Chapters on recent history are followed by 2 oa y , noreuekly. 
varied topics. The standpoint is pro-Korean and anti-Japanese. 
Unperwoop: The Call of Korea. 1908. Fleming H. 

Revell Co., New York. Illustrated. 75 cents, net. 


_ An earnest appeal for Korea, written by one of the pioneer mis- 
sionaries for use asa text-book. Brief, but full of patent As 
appendix contains questions on the chapters and references for 
further study. 

Girrorp: Every-day Life in Korea. 1898. Fleming H. 


Revell Co., New York. Illustrated. $1.25. 


A plain and interesting account of missionary life and work in 
Korea up to 1897. Most of the statements about Korean charac- 
ter and principles of missionary method will be valuable for a long 
time to come. 

Bisuop: Korea and Her Neighbors. 1897. Fleming H. 
Revell Co., New York. Illustrated. $2.00. 


A journal by the well-known traveler, The form of the book is 
somewhat diffuse, but Mrs. Bishop’s style is vigorous and her judg- 
ment keen. 

Jones: Korea: The Land, People and Customs. 1907. 
Jennings & Graham, Cincinnati. 35 cents, net. 

A booklet containing much condensed information and an ace 
count of the beginnings of the Methodist work. 

Auten: Things Korean. 1908. Fleming H. Revell Co., 
\ New York. Illustrated. $1.25, net. 


Dr. Allen was the first resident Protestant missionary in Korea, 
and was for a long time United States minister there. He treats 
in rambling style various matters observed during the last twenty- 


five years. 
McKenzie: The Unveiled East. 1907. E. P. Dutton 
& Co., New York. $3.50, net. 


A sketch of conditions in China, Korea, and Japan, written from 
the political and commercial view-point. author criticises 
Japan’s administration in Korea. 


262 APPENDIX C 


McKenzie: The Tragedy of Korea. 1908. E. P. Dut- 
ton & Co., New York. $2.00, net. 
A severe arraignment of the Japanese methods in Korea, 


Mitrarp: The New Far East. 1906. Charles Scribner’s 
Sons, New York. $1.50, net. 


An examination into the new position of Japan and her infuence 
upon the solution of the Far Eastern question, with special refer- 
Suis the interests of America and the future of the Chinese 

mpire, 


Mittarp: America and the Far Eastern Question. 1909. 
Moffat, Yard & Co., New York. $4.00. 


Gives some chapters on Korea as a factor in the present political 
and commercial situation. The verdict is unfavorable to the Japa 
nese. 


Lapp: With Marquis Ito in Korea. 1908. Charles 
Scribner’s Sons, New York. Illustrated. $2.50, net. 


A Japanese apologetic, dogmatic in tone and with little sympathy 
for Korea. Professor Ladd was in the employ of the Japanese gov~- 
ernment during the visit he describes. 


INDEX 


263 


INDEX 


A 
Ague, 15 > 
Allen, Hon. H. N., M.D., 
163, 175, 180; quoted, 


160 
American trolley-cars, 13, 


14 
Analects, The, 141 
Ancestor worship, 69-78 


Appenzeller, Dr., 163 
Australian Presbyterian 
work, 238 


Avison, Dr., 180 


B 

Baird, Dr., 203 

Beach, Dr., 227 

Berneux, Bishop, 161 

Bible, 47, 79, 88, 89, 119, 
120, 140; illustrated by 
Korean customs, 147- 
155; translation, 138, 175 

Bible study classes, 176, 
231-236 

Bishop, Mrs. Isabella Bird, 
69; quoted, 2, 83, 94, 239, 


240 

Book of Changes, the, 47 

Books of History and Poet- 
ry, the, 141 

Brown, Prof. J. Macmillan, 
quoted, 216, 219 

Brown, Sir John McL., 58 

Buddhism, 66, 68, 79-81 

Bunker, Rev. and Mrs. A. 
D., 183 


C 
Cable, E. M., quoted, 226 
Canadian Presbyterian 


work, 238 

Canon of Changes, The, 
quoted, 87 

Carlyle, Thomas, referred 
a dene 

Cash, old coins formerly 


used, 11, 12 

Chang Chih-tung, 178 

Changing conditions, 22-24, 
58, 59, 146, 170 

Chang-yu, Prince, 9 

China, but little known in 
1889 to Korea, 129; her 
millions on the West,135; 
uses a cumbersome lan- 
guage, 136;voicefrom,245 

“Chinaman, John,” 4o, 41 

Chinese literature in Korea, 
44-46 

Chinese seeking light from 

. Korea, 215 

“Chosun,’’ 4 

Christ, see Jesus Christ 

Chunnampo, 190, 236 


Comity among mission- 
aries, 237 

Confucianism, 62, 72, 78, 
80, 95, 106 


Coolie, the, in transporta- 
tion, 12; naming the Five 
Virtues, 96 

Crisis, the final, in Korea, 
38 


265 


266 


Crowds and lack of privacy, 
trying to missionaries, 
167, 168 

Custom rules, roo, ror 

Customs of Bible times and 
lands prevail, 147, 149- 


ISI 
Customs, the, now admin- 
istered by aliens, 58 
Cutler, Dr., 181 


D 
Death, heathen and Chris- 
tian associations, 170, 


171 
Debt, universality of, ro9 
Demons, belief in, 82-86, 


152 
Doctrine of the Mean, The, 


I4I 
Donations of time, 200, 236, 
237 
Dragons, 

sea, 3 
Dress, 18-20, 113, 149 


58, 87; of the 


Early marriages, 76 

Edison, tor, 145 

Edmunds, Dr., 181 

Education, 45-47, 57, II7, 
140-146; former customs, 


ASA 7m) (TAT e425 ew 
methods, 57, 58, 117, 
142-146 


Educational mission work, 
143, 181, 182, 238 

Emperor, the retired, 34— 
38, 43, 44, 182 

Ernsburger, Dr., 181 

Esson Third, quoted, 9, 16, 
36, 53, 115 

Evangelistic work, 171-173, 
191-200, see also Revival 

Exorcists , $15, 86 


INDEX 


F 

“Face” defined, 52-56 
Fakumen, Manchuria, 219 
Family, the, 101-106 
Five Elements, 96, 98 
Five Laws, 95, 97 
Five Virtues, 95, 97 
Food, lack of familiar, try- 

ing to missionaries, 167 
Foreign visitors to Korea, 


131 
Funeral customs, 70-72 
Fusan, 8, 179 


G 
Geography and Ailas of 
Protestant Missions, 227 
God, Korean’s idea of, 78, 
79, 118 
Goforth, Mr., 216, 217 
Grave, the, 70, 73, 74 


H 
Hague, The, 38 
Hailuncheng, 
219 
Hardie, Dr., 201 
Hart, Sir Robert, 58 
Heated stone floor, sitting 
and sleeping on, trying 
to missionaries, 166, 167 
Hermit tendency, 127-129 
Heron, Dr., 163, 180 
Hirst, Dr., 180 
Historical sketch, 30 
Homes lack privacy, 107 
Hospitals, 179-181 
Hulbert, Homer B., 38; 
quoted, 2, 66 
Hygiene, 112 
Hymns, 176 


Manchuria, 


Idolatry, 152 
Ito, Prince, 180, 239 


INDEX 


Japan, a dominant power, 
134; disliked, 35; has 
less freedom in her lan- 
guage than Korea, 136; 
her influence on Korea’s 
life, 245; in 1889 known 
only by name, 129; Resi- 
dency-General in Korea, 


Japanese currency in use, 


12 

Jesus Christ, 44, 50, 51, 59, 
60, 88, 94, 120, 126, 133, 
Teo Eh s. l54,) TOT, 7 OZ, 
E972, 29735205, 22 

Jones, Dr. George Heber, 
quoted, 83, 94, 126, 182, 
198 


Kamok Prison, remarkable 
men converted in,182—184 

Kanghwa, Island of, 162 

Keel, 82, 203-220 

Ki, Viscount, 45 

Kim, Mr., 19; quoted, 6, 
AI, 44, 55 

Kim Ik-too, 212 

Kim In, 183, 184 

Kim Chan-sung, 211 

Kim Chung-sik, 183, 184 

Ko Chan-ik, 249-252 

Korea, a quiet land, 17; 
area, 4, 132; divisions, 5; 
general aspect, 18; 
houses, 18, 19; location, 
Sua itimerais, .To,) DE 
money, II, I2; moun- 
tains, 6; names, 4; popu- 
lation, 5, 6; products, 8— 
10; public utilities, 146; 
rivers, 7; roads, 17, 18; 
size, 4,/ 132; soil, 7, 8; 
transportation, £2, 146; 
weather, 13-15 


267 


Korean characteristics, 47, 
HZ, LIO, IPT, IT4, 115, 
118, 196, 242 

Korean Christians, see Na- 
tive Christians 

Korean people, diseases, 15, 
jo 169; dress, see Dress; 
ood, 20, 21, 167; lan- 
guage, see Language; 
love of literature, 44, 45, 
140-142; medical prac- 
tise, 108; religion, see 
Religion; thirst for knowl- 
edge, 144, 145; their 
world a world of fear, 
87, 88, 117 

Korea’s day of reckoning, 
36; desolation, 32, 56; 
fixed social condition, 99; 
hermit life, 128, 129; po- 
sition in the East, 134, 
135 

Koryu dynasty, cause of 
fall, 80 


Lacquer, odor of, 16 
Language, 21, 22, 136-140; 
mistakes in using, trying 
to missionaries, 171 
Lee, Mr., quoted, 201, 204 
Life of Martin Luther, 174 
Literary work, 173-177, 238 
Literature highly esteemed 
by Koreans, 140-142 
Lowell, Percival, 13, 69 


Manchurian revival, 
220 

Marriage and divorce, 94, 
8, 99, 102-105 

Medical work, 163, 177- 
181; great indirect serv- 
ice, 178 

Mencius, 141 


215— 


268 


Methodist Episcopal 
Church, mission work of, 
163, 174, 181, 182, 227, 
229-231, 238 

Military, the, 58 

Min, Prince, 37, 38, 54 

Mining, IO, II, 58, 75 

Misrule, 33, 34 

Missionary, an evangel of 
hope, 55; hardships, 166— 
Til how he meets ances- 
tral worship, 78; secrets 
of success, 171-173 

: Missions, agencies used, 
I71I-184, I9I-194, 197—- 
221, 231-252; Nevius 
plan, 160; pioneer 
methods, 161-165; self- 
government, self-propa- 
gation, self-support, 194— 
197; trials ae 9 compen- 
sations, 165-171, 
185 

Mission schools, 143 

Mixed script, the, 138, 139 

Moffatt, Dr., 182 

Mokpo, 179 

Money, 11 

Moore, Rev. J. Z., quoted, 
190, 233 

Morrison, Dr., 181 

Mountains, 6, 7 

Mukden, revival at, 215— 
210 

Murata, Mr., 213 


182— 


N 
Nai-woi defined, 48, 49, 52 
Native Christians, 184, 185, 
IQI—-194, 198-200 
Native Church, condition, 
195-198; growth, 227— 
231; ideal for, 194; Oppo- 
sition overcome, 164, 165 
Native script, the, 137, 138 


INDEX 


Need of leaders, 243, 244 

Nevius, Dr. and Mrs., 160 

Nickel, the, as in 
Korea, II, 12 

Noble, Dr. W. Arthur, 198 


Odors, national, 16 
Office-seeking, 
Ohlinger, Rev. ¥ 174 
Outlook, quoted, 13 


P 
Pang, Pastor K. C., quoted, 


20 

Pair authority, sys- 
tem of, 113 

Patriotism, no room for, 
113, 116 

‘*Peach-red,”’ 

Phillips, Dr., se: 218 

Pickle, Korean, odor of, 16, 


Pilgrim's s Progress, 174, 183 

Ping yang, 7, 181, 182, 201, 
210,222, 228, 293,/ 226, 
240 

Population, 5 

Pree Church in the 
U. S. A., mission work 
of, 161, 163, 164, 180— 
182, 184, 228, 238 

Press, the, see Literary 
work 

Primer, The, 141 

Products, 8-11 


R 
Rainfall, 13, 14 
Religion, 35, 67-69 
Reverence for ane 75 
Revival, the great, 201- 
221; zeal of native Chris- 
tians for, ae te 


Reynolds, Dr. ey | 


INDEX 


Rice, 8 

Rivers, 7 

Rockhill, Hon. W. W., 
Roman Catholics, 161, 164 
Ross, John, 161 

Russia’s power in the East, 


135 


Sacrifice for sin. 
the dead, 72, 73 

Sakyamuni, 81 ; 

Salutations, 136, 14 

Sam Guk Sa, the, Piatt 
178 

eto Miss, 233 

“School-man”’ defined, 46 

Scranton, Dr., 163 

Seoul, 5, 13, 14, 37, 80, 130, 
I3I, 160, 164, 179, 181, 
184, 200, 214, 251 

Seoul Press, quoted, 
Iro, 118 

Severance Hospital, 180 

Shamanism, see Demons 

Sharrocks, Dr., quoted, 195 

Shin, Mrs., 31, 32, 39 

Sickness and death, their 
pagan associations trying 
to missionaries, 169-171 

Sickness caused by evil 
spirits, 153 

Smallpox patient at a meet- 
ng, 169, 170 

Smoking, 9, 10 

Social upheaval, causes of, 
119 

See, becoming conscious, 


148; for 


109, 


Bone chin, 179 
pc belief concerning, 72, 


Spits of the dead, 84, 85 
Spirit worship, 66, 82-88 
Subscriptions of time, 200, 


236, 237 


269 


Superstition, 68, 178 
Syen chun, 179, 195, 228, 
236 


Taoism, 68, 81, 82 
Taxation, 56 
Taylor, Hudson, quoted, 


BSon 
Theological schools, 181, 
182 
Thousand Character 
Classic, the, 141 
Tobacco, 9, Io 
Tong-mong Son-seup, 
I41 
Tract Society, 174 
Tracts, Mr. Moody’s, 183 
Tokgabi, 68, 86 
Treaties with Japan, 37, 38 
Tsao, Mr. S. K., quoted, 


the, 


Ze 
Tumen River, 7, 8, 191 


U 
Underwood, Dr. H. G., 161, 
163; quoted, 2, 13, 160 


Vv 

Vanguard, The, 252 

Verbeck, Dr. Guido F., 40, 
42 

Vermin, trying to mission- 
aries, 168, 169 


W 

War, the great, 130 

Woman, emancipation, 48, 
40) LOS) (eos bie talon 
througn ancestral wor- 
ship, 77; her only hope, 
50; medical work for, 180, 
181; new perils, 49; social 
status, 104-106, 181 

Wonderful, T. J., 56 


270 INDEX 


Yi Yi Won-gung, 183, 184 

Yalu River, 7, 8 Yi Wung-geung, quieted, 95 
Yee, Madam, 52 Yo-sun, 34 

Yellow Hell, 77 Young Men’s Christian As- 
Yi and the mummy, 112 sociation, 128, 184, 238, 
Yi Chang-jik, 214 239, 242 

Yi-king, the, 141 Yun, Hon. T. H., quoted, 
Yi Sang-jai, 128, 183, 184 I1g, 2 


39 
Yi Seung-man, 183, 184 Yu Song-jun, 183, 184 


Forward Mission Study Courses 


“ Anywhere, provided it be rorwarv.”’—David Living- 
stone.” 


Prepared under the direction of the 
YOUNG PEOPLE’S MISSIONARY MOVEMENT 


OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA 


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lor, J. E. McAfee, C. R. Watson, John W. Wood, L. B. 
Wolf. 


The forward mission study courses are an outgrowth of 
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need that was manifested at that conference for mission 
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These courses have been officially adopted by the Young 
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used by more than forty home and foreign mission boards 
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The aim is to publish a series of text-books covering 
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by leading authorities. The entire series when completed 
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The following text-books having a sale of nearly 
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1. The Price of Africa. (Biographical.) By 8. Earl 
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iz. The Why and How of Foreign Missions. A 
study of the relation of the home Church to the foreign 
missionary enterprise. By Arthur J. Brown. 

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13. The Frontier. A study of the New West. By 
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14. South America: Its Missionary Problems. <A 
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16. Korea in Transition. A study of Korea. By 
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formly and are sold at 50 cents, in cloth, and 35 cents, 
in paper; postage, 8 cents extra. 


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